1336 
 
 IRLF 
 
 10 
 
 o 
 o 
 
HE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 E UNIVERSITY 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 :HARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
WILLIAM TELL; 
 
 OR, 
 
 SWITZERLAND DELIVERED, 
 
 CHEVALIER DEPLORE AN, 
 
 Member of the Royal Academies of Paris, Madrid, Florence, 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED, 
 
 A SHORT ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE OF TELL. 
 
 " Go to the land where TELL drew freedom's bow ; 
 And in the patriot's country thou shalt find 
 A semblance 'twixt the scene and his immortal mind." 
 
 CAMPBBLL. 
 
 IContJon : 
 JAMES WATSON, 18, COMMERCIAL PLACE, 
 
 CITY ROAD, FINSBURY. 
 183G. 
 
A SHOUT ACCOUNT PQ / f 83 
 
 OF THE /~>G'82. 
 
 /<P*3& 
 
 CELEBRATED SWISS PATRIOT, 
 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 FEW names are more familiar to us than that of William Tell. 
 None, that more deserve to be held in respect and remembrance. 
 As long as the love of freedom inspires the human breast, so 
 long will the name of Tell, with those of Wallace, Hambden, 
 and others, be held in reverence. 
 
 William Tell was born at Burglen in the canton of Uri. He 
 appears to have been the son of a labouring peasant, and to 
 have followed the same occupation. 
 
 Switzerland was at this period (1300) under the government 
 of Albert, emperor of Austria; who superintended their affairs 
 by deputy. Albert was one of those royal monsters so common 
 at that period; one, who looked upon the labouring people as 
 naturally inferior to himself, whose lives were only permitted 
 them, to produce necessaries and luxuries for his enjoyment, 
 and those who upheld his tyranny. Albert appointed as gover- 
 nor of Switzerland, a man, equal to himself in all the vices that 
 degrade humanity. 
 
 The name of this governor was Gesler. Not satisfied with 
 the power exercised by his predecessors, he studied by every 
 means to increase the exactions, and to insult and oppress at 
 the same time, the unfortunate people, who were subject to his 
 tyranny. 
 
 The appearance of comfort among the people was an excuse 
 for the levying of an impost; and the amount of that impost 
 was regulated by the caprice of the tyrant, and the wants of his 
 slavish myrmidons. 
 
 Life, and the proceeds of industry had no protection from the 
 miscreant Gesler who misgoverned Switzerland; both were at 
 his mercy. 
 
 To resist such robbery, was to subject the person resisting, to 
 torture as well as robbery. To check the tyrant, to vindicate 
 the sacred rights ot humanity, and to free their country, was the 
 
 M367533 
 
glorious aim of Tell and his companions. To suffer death in 
 the endeavour to overthrow such oppression, they considered 
 preferable to a base submission to the tyranny of a wretch like 
 Gesler. 
 
 Tell and his companions waited for an opportunity to revenge 
 themselves on their oppressors. The multiplied crimes of the 
 cruel Gesler, soon afforded them such a trial. The cries of the 
 injured, and the general hatred, forced the oppressed into a 
 compact for their deliverance. The particulars are thus stated 
 in "Switzerland Illustrated," by Dr. Beattie: "After Gesler's 
 appointment the tolls were raised, the most venial offences 
 punished with imprisonment and forfeiture, and the inhabitants 
 treated with every mark of contempt. Happening one day to 
 ride past a newly-built house belonging to Stauffacher, in the 
 village of Stenin, " What .! " exclaimed Gesler, "shall it be 
 endured that these grovelling peasants should erect such an 
 edifice as this? If boors are to be so lodged guidfacient ma- 
 gistri? " 
 
 This picture of Austrian government in Switzerland, in the 
 fourteenth century, does not materially differ from Austrian 
 government in Germany and Italy at the present day. If more 
 deference be now paid to external appearance, the same rooted 
 hatred to liberty is still shown by the Austrian despot. Look 
 to the victims of freedom pining in the dungeons of those coun- 
 tries. 
 
 Tell and his friends took measures for their country's redress. 
 " The rendezvous selected for the meeting of the patriots, was a 
 lonely sequestered strip of meadow, in the angle of the lake, 
 called Grutli, surrounded by thickets, at the foot of the Brunnen. 
 They met again in this place, when each of them, in proof of 
 the desire felt for the redress of their wrongs, presented ten 
 confederates each. With uplifted hands, and eyes fixed upon 
 the starry firmament, under whose friendly canopy their meet- 
 ings had been matured into action, they bound themselves by 
 an express vow, to redress their country's injuries; to have no 
 interest at heart but the common welfare; to endure no wrongs, 
 to commit no trespass. " 
 
 Gesler in the wantonness of his power, set his hat on a pole 
 in the market-place of Altorff, and compelled all the inhabitants 
 to pay the same homage to it as to his own person. 
 
 "William Tell the cross-bowman of Burglen, and one of the 
 heroes of Grutli, passed the symbol of tyranny without paying 
 it the proper honours, he was instanly arrested and brought 
 before Gesler. "Wherefore," asked Gesler, "hast thou dis- 
 
obeyed my orders, failed in thy respect to the king of the Ro- 
 mans? Why pass the sacred badge of thy sovereign without 
 homage?" 'Verily,' said Tell, 'it was an accident/ Gesler 
 knowing that Tell was an excellent marksman, and had a family 
 of fine children, he ordered these children to be confronted with 
 their father. "To which of these children," inquired Gesler, 
 "art thou most attached?" "I make no distinctions," said 
 Tell; " they are all equally dear tome." "It is my order," 
 said Gesler, " that with an arrow thou split an apple placed on 
 the head of one of thy children; and in the event of thy missing 
 the apple, or killing the child, thy own life shall be forfeited. " 
 
 The child was placed under the linden tree which shaded the 
 market-place; the ferocious Gesler placed the apple with his 
 own hand upon the child's head a boy six years old. Tell 
 took up his bow, and adjusting with seeming apathy the shaft 
 to the string, drew boldly then staggered back like a man 
 struck with sudden blindness, as if his very spirit had passed 
 away with the arrow a shout of triumph recalled his senses, 
 he saw the cloven apple and embraced his child. 
 
 Gesler the brutal Gesler alone stood unmoved He percei- 
 ved in the girdle of Tell, an arrow half concealed. " For what 
 Purpose, " inquired Gesler, " hast thou reserved that arrow which 
 see. Speak frankly, and thy life is spared dissemble and 
 thou shalt die. " " So be it, " answered Tell, " the arrow which 
 thou seest, was intended, had I slain my child with the first, to 
 
 avenge his death by " " How ! " exclaimed the baliff; 
 
 "avenge?" "Yes," calmly continued Tell, " to avenge his 
 death by sacrificing thine ! and thou perceivest that my shaft is 
 not one to miscarry. This much in obedience to thy command ! " 
 
 Tell did not regain his liberty, but was forced away by order 
 of the tyrant to the dungeon of Kusnacht. Gesler accompanied 
 the soldiers with their prisoner in his own barge across the lake 
 of Lucerne, in order to avoid the possibility of a rescue. One 
 of those sudden storms, so common in that country, arose during 
 the passage. Tell, whose skill as a navigator was not inferior to 
 his other qualifications, was released from his chains, and placed 
 at the helm. He steered the barge to the point of a rock, still 
 shown to travellers, on which he sprung from the barge, and 
 made his way to the mountains, to the terror and dismay of 
 Gesler and his satellites. 
 
 Tell watched the return of Gesler to Altorff; and, by the 
 discharge of an arrow from his bow, shot the tyrant to the heart. 
 
 The destruction of Gesler led to a general rising of the people. 
 The signal of resistance passed from height to height, and the 
 beacon of liberty blazed in triumph along the Alps. 
 
This great event in Swiss history took place in the year 1308. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that this resistance to despotic power, 
 was the glorious effort of men without riches; without titles. 
 The patrimony of these patriots, was their virtuous industry; 
 they cultivated the earth, they rendered it fruitful; and, they 
 were determined to enjoy its produce, or perish in resisting the 
 robbers to whom they had long been subject. 
 
 The union of a small number of men, animated by the spirit 
 of liberty, communicated that spirit to their countrymen which 
 has been perpetuated, strengthened, and approved by their 
 descendants. "Thus, O shade of Gesler," they exclaim, 
 " that same ducal hat by which in cruel mockery thou didst 
 insult an oppressed people, has become the signal and badge of 
 Helvetic freedom. " 
 
 The founder of Swiss liberty, William Tell; was drowned in 
 a mountain cataract in the year 1 354. The place of his residence 
 in Altorff, and the spot where he slew Gesler, have chapels 
 erected on them, where religious rites are performed on every 
 succeeding anniversary of Switzerland's Independence. 
 
 We will close this short account of Tell, with the following 
 extract, the spirit of which will meet a response in the breast of 
 all who love liberty. " How long " said the wife of Werner 
 Stauffacher,* one day, in a startling appeal to his feelings 
 " How long shall arrogance triumph, and humility weep ? How 
 Jong shall the insolent stranger possess our lands, and bestow 
 our inheritance on his heirs? What avails it that our mountains 
 and valleys are inhabited by men, if, their swords that ought to 
 be drawn in their country's service ate only worn for show? 
 How long shall the Helvetian mother weep over her unhappy off- 
 spring, and feel herself at once the wife and the nurse of slaves ? 
 How long must our sons bear the insulting yoke, and our 
 daughters be exposed to insult and shame, while we, by our 
 silence, give countenance to the oppressor? Are our chains so 
 firmly rivetted as not to be wrenched asunder by patriotic hands? 
 No! for although women and babes as the helpless witnesses 
 of their country's degradation, can only weep and pray, men, 
 Stauffacher men should do more! " 
 
 * Stauffacher was an associate of Tell in the struggle for 
 Swiss liberty. 
 
WILLIAM TELL; 
 
 OR 
 
 SWITZERLAND DELIVERED. 
 
 BOOK FIRST. 
 
 FRIENDS of Liberty ! magnanimous Hearts ! souls of Sensibility ! 
 ye, who know how to die for your independence, and live only 
 for your brethren, lend an ear to my accents. Come! hear 
 how one single man, born in an uncivilised clime, in the midst 
 of a people curbed beneath the rods of an oppressor, by his 
 individual courage raised this people, so abased, and gave it a 
 new being; instructed it in its rights Rights, sacred and 
 inalienable which Nature had unfolded, but which Ignorance 
 and Despotism had so long concealed. 
 
 This man, the Child of Nature, proclaimed the laws of his 
 Mother armed himself to maintain them awoke his com- 
 patriots slumbering beneath the weight of their galling chains 
 put into their hands the ploughshare, changed by him into the 
 Sword of Heroes vanquished and dispersed the cohorts which 
 the tyrants opposed to him and in a barbarous age, amidst 
 rocks and mountains deemed almost uninhabitable, founded a 
 retreat for those two Daughters of Heaven and comforters of 
 the earth Reason and Virtue. 
 
 I invoke not thee to-day, O Poesy divine! thou, whom I 
 have adored from earliest infancy; thou, whose brilliant fictions 
 formed my chief felicity; preserve thy magic pencil for the 
 Heroes whose portraits need embellishment. Thy ornaments 
 would but disparage him whom now I wish to celebrate; thy 
 garlands would but ill become his countenance intrepid; his 
 look, serene yet terrible, would soften too much under thy 
 hands. Fear to touch his wild and native pomp; leave him 
 his rustic garb leave him his bow of yew let him wander 
 alone across the rocks, and on the margin of the blue torrent : 
 follow him from afar, with reverence and with fear; and, with 
 
I WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 a timid trembling hand, scatter in the paths that he has trodden 
 the flowers wild of Eglantine. 
 
 In the centre of ancient Helvetiain that country so renowned 
 for the valour of its inhabitants, three Cantons, whose narrow 
 limits are closed on every side by rocks and mountains almost 
 inaccessible, had preserved those simple manners which the 
 Creator of the world gave at first to man, as his best protection 
 against vice, labour, frugality, good faith, simplicity, and all 
 the virtues pursued by conquerors, the Kings of the earth, 
 concealed themselves behind these mountains. They were 
 long unknown, nor yet complained of their happy obscurity. 
 Liberty at length seated herself on the summit of their rocks ; 
 and from that fortunate hour, the true Sage^ the true Hero, 
 never pronounces but with respect and reverence, the names 
 of Uri, SckweitZ, and Underwald. 
 
 The inhabitants of these three Cantons, perpetually occupied 
 with rural labours, escaped for several ages those crimes, thoe 
 miseries, produced by ambition, by the quarrels, by the guilty 
 frenzy of those numerous barbarian chiefs, who on the ruins of 
 the Roman empire founded a multitude of states, usurped the 
 rights of man, governed by a code of horror, reduced by 
 ignorance in favour of tyranny and superstition. Forgotten, 
 contemned perhaps, by these despoilers of the world, the 
 labourers, the herdsmen of Uri, partially submitted to those 
 new Csesars, and yet bore the consoling name of being free : 
 they preserved their ancient laws, their customs, and their 
 simple manners. Tranquil, sovereign masters in their peaceful 
 cottages, the fathers of families grew old in peace, surrounded 
 by respect and love : their children, ignorant of evil, fearing 
 God, obeying their father, knew no other happiness, no other 
 desire, no other hope, than that of resembling the good man 
 from whom they received their being; to obey and to imitate 
 him, formed the circle of their life. This people, simple and 
 virtuous, almost forgotten or unknown to the world, remained 
 alone with Nature, protected by their poverty, continued to be 
 good, and were as yet unpunished. 
 
 Not far from Altorff, their capital, on the margin of the 
 lake which gives its name to the town, a mountain rears its 
 lofty head, from whence the traveller, fatigued with the long 
 and painful journey, surveys a multitude of valleys, unequally 
 bordered by rocks and hills. Gentle streams, rapid torrents, 
 now falling in cascades and bounding o'er the rocks, now 
 meandering beneath a bed of moss, descending slow, or urging 
 precipitate their way, at length reach the vaflies, mingle and 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 unite their streams, water the extensive pastures covered with 
 flocks and herds immense; then lose themselves in the limpid 
 lake, in which the Bull delights to lave. 
 
 On the summit of this mountain stood a poor cottage in the 
 centre of a small field, a vineyard, and an orchard. A labourer, 
 a Hero, who as yet knew not himself, and whose heart only 
 confessed the love of his country, William Tell, scarcely twenty 
 years of age, received from his father this inheritance. " My 
 son, " said the old man on the bed of death, " I have laboured, 
 I have lived. Sixty winters have shed their snows upon this 
 peaceful cottage, without vice ever having dared to cross the 
 threshold of my door, without ever having one night's rest 
 broken by remorse. Labour like me, my son; like me chuse 
 a virtuous wife,' whose love, confidence, soft and patient friend- 
 ship, will double all thy innocent pleasures, and share each 
 grief and pain. Marry then, my dear William : a virtuous 
 man unmarried is but half virtuous. Farewell! moderate thy 
 grief. Death is easy for the good man. When I sent thee to 
 carry fruits to our brethren, the bread which they wanted, didst 
 thou not feel pleasure in rendering me an account of the good 
 actions with which I had charged thee? Even so, my boy, I 
 am going to render an account to my Heavenly Father of the 
 good actions with which he charged me so long ago : He will 
 receive me, my son, as I received thee; and near him shall I 
 expect thee. Do good on the spot where I leave thee; be good 
 as thou art free: but if ever a tyrant dares to infringe in the 
 least on our ancient liberty, William, die for thy country, and 
 thou shalt find how sweet thy death will be." 
 
 Deep sunk his words into the feeling soul of Tell. After 
 having rendered the last duties to his venerable sire, after 
 having dug his grave at the foot of a willow near his cottage, 
 he swore to himself (and never did he violate the oath) to go 
 alone every evening to the sacred tomb of his father, to recall 
 every action, every thought of the preceding day, and demand 
 of his father's shade, if he were contented with his son. 
 
 O! how many virtues did he owe to this pious obligation! 
 how much the fear of blushing in interrogating the paternal 
 shade, accustomed his soul of fire to vanquish and subdue his 
 passions! Master of his most ardent desires turning even 
 their violence to the profit of wisdom, Tell, heir of his father's 
 little all, imposed on himself labours yet more hard ; obtained 
 from the earth a double harvest of which the poor partook. 
 He arose with the dawn of day, and, sustaining with a vigorous 
 arm the extremity of a plough, which two oxen drew with 
 
4 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 difficulty, he buried the shining iron in a flinty soil, hastened 
 the sluggish animals with the goad, and, his brow covered with 
 sweat, only sought repose at the close of day to mourn the fate 
 of those unfortunate neighbours, who were not possessed of a 
 plough. This idea occupied his mind, as he led his oxen home, 
 nor did it leave him during the hours of rest ; and often in the 
 morning, with the first peep of Aurora's beams, Tell went and 
 laboured in the fields of his indigent friends, sowed them with 
 grain during their absence, and concealed it from them ; not 
 to deprive them of the pleasure of grateful thanks, but to spare 
 himself that gratitude arising from his beneficence towards his 
 equals: these were his cares, these his relaxations, these his 
 pleasures. To labour and to do good, formed both his occupa- 
 tion and repose. 
 
 Nature, in endowing William with a soul so pure, accom- 
 panied her gift with muscular strength and extreme activity : 
 he was taller by the head than the tallest of his companions; 
 he scoured the rocks alone; braved the dashing torrent; darted 
 across the frozen cruggs; and took the chamois in its flight. 
 By strength of arm he pulled down the mountain oak on which 
 the axe had made but slight impression, and on his shoulders 
 bore it entire with its immense branches. On the holidays, in 
 the midst of the games celebrated by the young archers, Tell, 
 who had no equal at the bow, was compelled to remain an idle 
 spectator, in order that the prizes might be contended for: he 
 was placed, notwithstanding his youth, amongst the old men 
 seated to award : there, trembling with the honour, motionless 
 and scarcely breathing, his eyes followed the rapid arrow; 
 applauded with transport the archer who was nearest to the 
 mark; and his arms, perpetually extended, seemed anxious to 
 embrace a rival worthy of himself; but when their quivers 
 were exhausted, and the mountain dove as yet remained 
 untouched; when the bird, tired with fluttering, reposed on 
 the summit of the pole, and regarded with a tranquil eye the 
 efforts of her powerless enemies, William alone arose William 
 took his bow of yew; gathered three arrows from the ground. 
 With the first he struck the pole, and made the pigeon flutter; 
 with the second he cut the string which retained her painful 
 flight; the third sought her in the air, and brought her breath- 
 less at the feet of the astonished Judges. 
 
 Without priding himself on so many advantages, preferring, 
 to the most brilliant success, the most obscure of good actions, 
 Tell reproached himself with his tardiness in obeying the com- 
 mands of his father. Tell determined to marry, and young 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 Emma attracted his affections. Emma was the most chaste, 
 the most beautiful of all the daughters of Uri: The zephyr 
 sporting on the rose leaf, the source filtering through the 
 rock, each brilliant drop of which reflected the first rays of 
 light, was less pure than the heart of Emma. Peace, softness, 
 reason, had chosen her soul for their sanctuary : her virtue, 
 though she was a stranger even to the name, was to her exis- 
 tence ; nor could she comprehend how one could cease to be 
 good, without ceasing to be. 
 
 An orphan, and without fortune, educated from her infancy 
 in the cottage of an old man, the only surviving relation of her 
 indigent family, Emma kept his flocks. Ere Aurora illumined 
 the tops of the sombre willow, Emma was on the mountains, 
 surrounded by her sheep, and spinning a dress for her bene- 
 factor : she returned with the shades of evening, arranged the 
 cottage, prepared the repast of the night and that of the morrow, 
 and spared the feeble old man the necessity of wanting any 
 thing whilst she was absent: she then surrendered herself to 
 rest, satisfied with the preceding day ; happy in having acquitted 
 herself of the sweet claims of gratitude, and confident that the 
 morrow would yield her an equal pleasure. 
 
 Tell knew her ; he loved her. Tell did not employ those 
 attentive cares, that complaisance, that art, a stranger to his 
 soul, which so often profanes love by combining it with finesse ; 
 which knows how to precipitate or retard the confession of a 
 tender sentiment. A stranger to this study; ignorant that the 
 gift of pleasing could exist distinct from the pleasure of loving; 
 Tell never sought occasion to see Emma more often : he did 
 not follow her to the mountains; he did not wait with anxiety 
 for her return in the evening; on the contrary, during her 
 absence he went to visit her aged benefactor. There, in long 
 conversations, in which freedom, truth, and the unrestrained 
 emotions of the soul, presided, William listened to the old 
 man, who delighted to speak of Emma; related the most trifling 
 of her actions repeated all her expressions recounted, with 
 tears in his eyes, her patience, that inexhaustible goodness 
 which rendered this orphan every day more dear to him. 
 These praises, which sunk to the bottom of the soul of Tell f 
 augmented his affection far more than the sight of his beloved: 
 she arrived during those recitals; and Tell read on her brow 
 of meekness, in her soft and tranquil smile, in her artless, 
 modest mien, all that he had heard. He scarcely dared in 
 trembling accents address a few words to her; soon left her 
 with downcast eyes; saluted her with respect; and retired 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 with tardy step to his solitary rest, there to surrender himself 
 to the endearing thoughts of Emma, more than he could in her 
 presence. 
 
 At length, after six months were passed away, William felt 
 confident that his love was at least a virtue: he resolved to tell 
 her that he loved her, but, alas! he was unable to do this when 
 alone; therefore, taking an opportunity when they were returning 
 from public worship, and surrounded by the people, he whis- 
 pered Emma " I love thee much ; I honour thee still more. 
 I was good; you have made me sensible. If thou thinkest 
 that thou canst be happy with me, receive my heart and hand. 
 Come, dwell in my cottage; and on the grave of my beloved 
 father will I teach thee those virtues he taught me." Emma 
 hung down her head, and for the first time she felt the rising 
 blush ; presently she recovered the tranquil purity of her coun- 
 tenance, and, confident that she was bound in duty to express 
 her feelings, "William," replied she, "1 am much flattered 
 by thy choice. Ever happy in my peaceful station, I feel it 
 will be augmented by having the privilege of declaring in return, 
 that thou also art the object of my affection. " She gave him 
 her hand : Tell pressed it between his own. They gazed upon 
 each other with silent and mutual looks of love, and in the 
 eloquence of the eyes vowed eternal fealty to each other. 
 
 This union fixed the abode of happiness in the cottage of 
 Tell. Labour was now sweeter, because Emma culled the 
 fruits ; every good action became doubly interesting, because 
 Emma shared it. Seldom asunder, they only parted for a few 
 hours, to meet again with increase of rapture: their pleasures 
 were tranquil, their love without the violence of momentary 
 passion which ere long dwindles into disgust or hatred; they 
 moderated their transports by pleasures more durable, by 
 friendship, by confidence, by mutual esteem, and the fear 
 which true affection always dreads of being unable to render 
 each worthy of the other. These efforts rendered their souls 
 more virtuous, more refined; meliorated every image of the 
 mind, and caused a sweet exchange of thought and sentiment. 
 
 A son crowned their wishes and their hopes, was the pledge 
 of mutual felicity, and formed a source of pleasure and happi- 
 ness to which they were before strangers. The sweetly smiling 
 babe, to whom they gave the name of Albert, was nursed in 
 the lap of a fond mother till he reached his sixth year, when 
 his father took charge of him himself: he led him to the fields; 
 shewed him the meadows and the waving corn ; then explained 
 to him their utility; shewed him the mountains, the forests 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 and the rivers; then, bidding him look upwards, taught him to 
 pronounce with awful reverence the sublime name of the 
 Almighty! He told him that this God was present every 
 where; that he was the witness and the judge of every thought 
 and every action; that he only desired men to be good to make 
 them eternally happy. Every morning and every evening he 
 repeated these precepts: he explained by his own example 
 what it was to be good; and, without regard to his infancy, 
 and the weakness of his frame, he led him through the snows 
 and over the fields of ice; exercised his young arms in lifting 
 the yokes of the oxen; taught him to approach these formidable 
 animals without fear, to hold the plough, and guide it. 
 
 Inured to toils while in the field, the tenderness of his years 
 was forgotten, and he was no longer timid and effeminate unless 
 when he returned home: then he ran to the arms of a fond 
 delighted mother, embraced her, and with filial affection con- 
 sulted her countenance that he might anticipate every wish of 
 her bosom ; and ere it could be expressed he hastened to perform 
 it. O how often has this dear boy by his little affectionate 
 attentions rendered his good mother supremely blest! how often 
 in the absence of Tell, whose austere countenance supressed in 
 the bosom of Emma the fondness of maternal love, did she 
 press her lovely boy to her heart! "My dear Albert," she 
 repeated in the ecstacy of maternal love, " my boy ! my only 
 boy! my life is linked with thine: 'tis in thy soul, my sweet 
 infant, that mine exists. Know it, recollect it always, my 
 child, my dear child; but before thy father feign to be ignorant 
 how much I love thee. " 
 
 Tell joined to so many sources of pleasure another equally 
 important in prosperity or adversity Tell possessed a friend: 
 this friend, nearly of his own age, dwelt among the rocks which 
 separate URI from UMDEUWALD. The similarity of their souls, 
 and not their persons, had united them in the bonds of friend- 
 ship from the earliest period of their youth. Melctal, brave, 
 virtuous, and generous, the counterpart of Tell; his soul glowed 
 with enthusiasm in the cause of liberty and virtue: this enthu- 
 siasm was not capable of deep reflection, but concentrated in 
 a focus, glowed with ardour, and burst forth with impetuosity. 
 He was equal to the greatest actions; but, then, they were 
 momentary: he was incapable of digesting a design of magni- 
 tude, unless it could be carried into immediate execution. 
 Melctal, passionate and resolute, was unable to conceal his 
 sentiments; but the moment his bosom framed them, his lips 
 gave them utterance, and the transport of passion was over. 
 
8 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 Tell, on the contrary, was of a disposition silent and reserved : 
 he repressed his sentiments ; cherished them in his bosom ; 
 reviewed, corrected, digested, and matured them, without 
 permitting either his countenance or his tongue to be the index 
 of what was passing in his soul. Each abhorred injustice; but 
 the one burst forth like the rolling thunder, and braved every 
 danger to punish it; while the other, silent and calm, waited 
 for the moment when he might command success. Melctal 
 was the mighty torrent which overthrew every obstacle in its 
 way, until its force was spent. Tell was the rivulet which 
 meandered almost unseen through the meadow, until the gradual 
 influx of other streams swelled it into a powerful river: he 
 resembled the accumulated snows of many winters, which, the 
 solar heat, having detached from the craggy clifls, sweeps all 
 before it in its progress to the plain. 
 
 Melctal and Tell often crossed the short distance at which 
 they lived from each other, to pass together those days which 
 were devoted to repose and quiet: they enjoyed them alter- 
 nately at each other s cottage, and looked forward to the next 
 meeting with pleasure. Sometimes the virtuous Emma, with 
 her husband and her son, carried to Melctal milk and the first 
 fruits of their vineyard and orchard. Sometimes Melctal went, 
 his aged sire leaning on his arm, and in his hand his daughter, 
 the only pledge which remained of an affectionate wife, whose 
 loss he still bewailed. Tell waited their arrival at the door: a 
 bench was ready for the old man, and Emma presented him 
 with a cup of wine ; whilst the young Albert, whose anxious 
 eyes beheld them from afar, prepared a nosegay for the little 
 Clara, Melctal'' s lovely daughter. Oh ! how pure and sweet 
 were the pleasures they tasted together ! what delights they felt 
 around the rustic table ! As soon as their frugal repast was 
 finished, old Melctal, in spite of the burden of eighty years, 
 without any other support than his stick, gained the loftiest 
 summit of the mountain : there, seating himself in the midst of 
 his friends and children, he uncovered his venerable head, to 
 receive on his hoary locks the cheering warmth of the solar 
 beam; and, when his satisfied eyes had delighted themselves 
 with this view of Nature, this spectacle wkich enchanted him, 
 which transported him in as lively a manner as in the bloom of 
 youth, he then began to talk of his former years, his pains, his 
 pleasures, the miseries attached to human life, the consolations 
 which we always find in our conscience and in virtue. Tell, 
 Melctal, Emma, listened with attentive respect. Clara and 
 Albp t seated near the old man, now looked at him with affec- 
 
WILLIAM TELL. V 
 
 tion, and now pressed his hand. A single glance from William's 
 eye brought the blush of innocence into their cheeks, and the 
 old man, perceiving it, made excuses for them to William. 
 
 Clara and Albert grew together, and their innocent loves 
 followed the progress of their years : already the happy days 
 they passed together came too seldom for their wishes. Albert, 
 during the long weeks which rolled away without seeing his 
 Clara, sought and invented pretexts to leave his father's cottage, 
 and fly to that of Clara: sometimes he came to tell Melctal 
 that a bear had appeared on the mountain, and that the flocks 
 were threatened ; then he would go and inform him, that during 
 the proceeding evening the north wind had blighted the young 
 buds of the vines. Melctal listened to him with a smile; 
 thanked him for his cares and his attentive friendship. Clara 
 hastened to present him a bowl of milk : Albert, in seizing the 
 bowl, clasped in his hands those of Clara, carried them with 
 it to his lips, till the refreshing liquid was exhausted. Albert 
 drank it slowly, with his eyes fixed on her he loved; and, 
 satisfied with her smile, happy in the success of his expedients, 
 he returned home to ponder on a new scheme for paying 
 auother visit. 
 
 Thus lived these two families; thus lived a people of brethren, 
 for they formed but one family : nor age nor youth, nor wives 
 nor husbands, knew a source of happiness or pleasure beyond 
 the purity of friendship, innocence, love, labour, and equality. 
 Alas ! on a sudden the death of Rodolphb tore from them all 
 that was dear, for it tore from them all these blessings. 
 Rodolpho, raised by fortune to the throne of the Caesars, had 
 always respected the liberty of the Swiss : his successor, the 
 haughty Albert, exhibited the reverse of all Rodolpho's virtues. 
 Proud of his vain titles, his immense dominions, which seemed 
 to stretch over half the world, he was indignant that a few 
 shepherds, goatherds, labourers in the vineyards, should be 
 exempted from the name of subjects. With gold he thought to 
 purchase their liberty, vainly imagining that the execrable ore 
 would render him master of those who had never bowed the 
 knee or cringed at the feet of a tyrant. He looked around 
 among the fawning sycophants whose crimes render them by 
 turns the dread and hope of tyrants: he selected from among 
 them one to conquer, Gesler, the ruffian of the human race, 
 and therefore the chosen favourite of the young emperor. 
 
 Gesler, followed by the myrmidons of tyranny, nay the refuse 
 of these myrmidons, established his throne of blood in the heart 
 of ALTORFF; ever brooding over mischief, more impetuous to 
 
10 
 
 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 commit crimes than the miser eager to increase his hoard, waded 
 in the blood of a free people. More diabolical than the arch 
 fiend himself, Gesler racked his brain to invent some new, 
 some more horrid, engine of torture, which might prolong the 
 already agonized spark of life to the latest moment. Trembling 
 at the name of Liberty, and dreading every hour the reward of 
 his atrocities, he swore to extinguish even the name of freedom. 
 He suffered his soldiers to commit every brutality, every crime, 
 that the heart inured to vice, to rapine, and to plunder, from 
 earliest infancy could conceive, or the mind led on by the 
 blackest impulses could execute; and, setting the example him- 
 self, let loose his most hellish rage in the commission of every 
 barbarity. The people complained in vain; their cries were 
 only heard, that a pretext might be afforded for punishing them. 
 Virtue and Liberty shuddered at the sight ; they fled from the 
 face of day, and concealed themselves in the peaceful cottages, 
 where a daughter ruined, implored a mother's prayers to avenge 
 her wrongs, a mother's tears to soothe her aching breast; the 
 labourer cursed the soil which yielded its produce only for 
 tyranny and oppression. The aged parents of virtuous children 
 implored heaven that they might not survive the loss of all that 
 was dear; they looked forward to death as to the first of 
 blessings, the deliverer from the chains of tyranny. The air 
 resounded with the shouts of monsters and the groans of those 
 who perished ; the sun hid his face; and a dark funereal cloud 
 -pread itself on the horizon of misery. 
 
 From the moment that these mischiefs began, Tell conceived 
 the project of redressing them. Without even acquainting 
 Melctal of his designs, or hinting it to his family, his mind, 
 always superior to misfortune, walked in the thunder storm, 
 and beheld the general wreck without dismay: he prepared 
 himself not to suffer, but to deliver his country. Crimes heaped 
 on crimes, the demons yelled more horribly, and these Cantons 
 fell with terror at the feet of Gesler. Yet William trembled 
 not, for William's soul never yet knew fear: he beheld the 
 crimes of a tyrant with as serene an eye as he would the rugged 
 rocks o'er which he roamed, or look at the lowly briar surroun- 
 ded by its thorns. Melctal, rash and impetuous, poured out 
 his fury before William: he listened, but answered not. No 
 tears gushed from his eyes, no ruling passion swayed his coun- 
 tenance, nor unveiled the secrets of his soul. Tell loved his 
 friend, but condemned the transports of his precipitate fury : 
 he concealed his grief, that he might not imitate his sorrows; 
 and remained master of his secret purpose until the time was 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 11 
 
 ripe for execution. Tranquil, inflexible in voice and manner, 
 he spurned his child, and turned from his wife's endearments 
 Before the accustomed hour he arose; led the oxen to the 
 pasture, where he had once laboured with pleasure: his goad 
 fell from his hand; and, stopping suddenly in the middle of an 
 ill-traced furrow, he folded his arms. His head sunk upon his 
 bosom, his eyes remained fixed on the ground; and thus, 
 scarcely venturing to breathe, he measured in imagination, he 
 calculated the power of the haughty Gesler, and the means of 
 destroying it ; and (still in fancy) holding with equal hand the 
 balance of reason, poised Gesler surrounded by banditti; sur- 
 rounded by assassins, armed withunlimited power, and supported 
 by a mighty empire, with the efforts of a single man inspired 
 by Liberty. 
 
 One evening, when William and his wife were seated before 
 their cottage, they beheld at some distance young Albert exerting 
 all his strength against the bell-weather of the flock: the sight 
 of this boy abandoning himself to the sweets of innocent joy, 
 the idea of the dreadful miseries prepared for him by slavery, 
 threw the feeling Tell into a profound reverie; -and, for the first 
 time in his life, a tear fell from his eyes. Emma beheld the 
 agonies of his soul ; she hesitated for a long time to speak to 
 him : at length, yielding to the impule of love, to the desire of 
 partaking all the griefs of a beloved spouse, she approached 
 him, caught hold of his hand, and looking earnestly in his face, 
 said to him, " What have I done, my love, to merit this cold 
 neglect? what have I done to lose that confidence of which I 
 was so proud? Thou dost suffer evils of which thy wife is 
 ignorant : thou wishest that they should be more painful to her 
 than to thyself. For these fifteen years past, thou knowest that 
 my thoughts have always waited upon thine; thou knowest that 
 I dared not believe in any happiness, to taste or feel it, until I 
 experienced the sweet certainty that it came from thee. Alas! 
 'tis in vain I examine my heart: it has been, it is, it will always 
 be, the same. Why, then, is thine no longer so? Nothing is 
 changed in our home : my husband, can he be changed? Look 
 at our cottage: 'twas here we wooed, 'twas here we loved. 
 Look at this field, cultivated by thyself, the produce of which 
 assures us ample subsistence, and wherewith to give to others. 
 Behold the sweetly smiling moon rising behind our mountains, 
 and announcing to us as beautiful a day as that now departing. 
 Contemplate our son, my love, whose joy, whose innocent mirth, 
 seems formed to excite our smiles, and demand that we should 
 be happy, happy as he is himself. What is wanting, then! 
 
12 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 Oh, William ! speak : my impatient soul, in anticipation, wishes 
 all thou canst desire, " 
 
 " Emma, " replied Tell, " pronounce not the name of happi- 
 ness, or thou wilt render more painful the weight which hourly 
 oppresses me. How I lament for thee, unfortunate! if thou 
 canst believe in felicity, if thou canst count upon this humiliating 
 repose, assured it was only by your obscurity, when Switzerland 
 is enslaved ; when the barbarous Gesler, that insolent emissary 
 of a still more insolent despot, commands us, strikes us on the 
 forehead with a rod of iron ! Thou shewest me this harvest, 
 produced by my labour: Getler with a word can ravage it 
 from me. Thou shewest me this cottage, where my fathers for 
 three centuries past have practised virtue : Gesler can tear it 
 from me. This child whom I adore, this portion of thyself, 
 which occupying all my tenderness, yet redoubles it for thee, 
 this child depends on Gesler. My Field my Wife my Son 
 even the tomb of my honoured father nothing now is mine! 
 all, all, are the tyrant's. The very air we breathe wafts only 
 submissive to his will. Oh, height of ignominy ! a people 
 entire a nation subject to the caprice of one man ! What do 
 I say? of a Man? .... Oh, God! pardon me for having 
 profaned the name of thy greatest work. Humanity can have 
 nothing in common with tyrants; she may be their victim, until 
 the moment when, regaining her rights, she avenges in a single 
 day the outrages of a thousand ages. This desire, this hope, 
 animates me. My whole soul is insufficient for the grandeur 
 of my designs: seek not to dissuade me from my purpose: seek 
 not to soften my soul with thoughts of thee and Albert. A 
 slave has no child a slave has no wife. I am a slave, and 
 Nature for me has ceased to be. Thy eyes, blinded by love, 
 look with pleasure on this cottage ; on this smiling spot, where 
 we once were happy: mine, opened by virtue, can behold 
 nothing but that tower built on the summit of the rock to keep 
 Uri in subjection. " 
 
 " Do'st thou think, " replied Emma, " that my heart, unwor- 
 thy of thine, has not long shuddered at the very name of servitude ? 
 do'stthou think that I could love Tell without detesting tyrants? 
 Ali! cease, my love, to condemn the softness of female sensibi- 
 lity, which may appear only to be nursed by tender sentiments. 
 Think, my love, that sensibility, though sometimes the mother 
 of weakness, is more often that of the greatest virtues. He 
 who can weep at the sight of misery, at the recital of a good 
 action, proves that he would comfort the one, and that he is 
 capable of the other. Judge thy wife by thyself. Are there 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 13 
 
 two natures in us? Thou adorest thy country: judge, then, 
 whether I ought to love it, since 'tis at once both thine and 
 mine. All the qualities of thy great soul are in my eyes more 
 splendid, because they are thine: without thee, I had been 
 virtuous : in loving thee, I became doubly so. Speak, then, 
 with confidence; unveil to me thy designs. My sex deprives 
 me of the hope of offering thee a useful succour, but my sex 
 does not hinder me from dying to second thee. 
 
 Tell at these words embraced Emma, and was preparing to 
 unveil to her his soul, when shrieks mingled with sighs, were 
 heard from the quarter of their cottage. Tell and his wife 
 hastily arose; they perceived their son pale, covered with tears; 
 his hands lifted towards heaven, and running towards them 
 with terror. "Oh, father! father! " said he, in broken accents, 
 
 "come, come to his aid! Melctal! old Melctal! .... 
 
 the barbarians have " As he spoke, Clara appeared 
 
 supporting the faultering steps of the unfortunate old man, his 
 right hand leaning on his stick, and his left arm sustained by 
 the inconsolable Clara: he cried at each step, " Tell! my dear 
 Tell! where art thou? " stretching forth his hands to meet him ; 
 till his feet, stumbling against the flinty soil, compelled him to 
 recover the support which he had only for a moment quitted. 
 William ran, caught the old man in his arms pressed him to 
 _ his bosom looked at him for an instant gave a terrible shriek: 
 his hair stood an end, to find on his venerable countenance only 
 the bleeding traces of those eyes, of which the barbarians had 
 deprived him. Seized with dread and horror, Tell receded from 
 his embrace, nor stopped till a rock impeded his retrograde 
 progress, against which he leaned, convulsed with horror. 
 Emmaswooned: Albert ran to her assistance; and Clara, calling 
 to William, pointed to his notice the blind old man, looked up 
 to heaven, and wept. 
 
 "Thou fliest from me; my only friend, thou fliest from me," 
 cried Melctal in a faultering tone : " thou fearest the blood 
 which issues from my wounds. Oh, William! return, return, 
 to my bosom; my heart yet remains; let me feel it beat and 
 palpitate against thine, let me at least assure myself, in embra- 
 cing thee, in touching thee, that the barbarians who have torn 
 out my eyes, have not torn from me my friend! " 
 
 "Pardon,'' replied Tell, rushing into his arms, "pardon the 
 first emotions of pity and of horror. Oh, thou most virtuous 
 of men ! thy misfortunes cannot augment the respect I had for 
 thee; but it augments my tenderness, it renders stronger and 
 more sacred, the cords of affection which allied me to thee. 
 
14 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 O tell me why? how? where? did those villains wound with 
 crimes; where did they dare to raise their hands against virtuous 
 old age? What is become of Melctal? Alas! he died in 
 defending thee. If he yet sees the light, would he have aban- 
 doned thee? could he have left thee in the care of a poor girl, 
 who alas! could do nothing else but weep! But I will replace 
 thy son; I will inherit both his tenderness and his revenge. " 
 
 "Accuse not my son," replied the old man: "judge not thy 
 friend without hearing him. Set me down amongst you; let 
 me feel thee at my side, William; let not Clara leave me; let 
 thy Emma and Albert listen to me with attention! " 
 
 They seated the old man on a mossy hillock. Tell sate near 
 him, Emma at his back, and sustained on her bosom the old 
 man's head. Clara and Albert, at his knees, kissed his hand, 
 and bathed it with their tears. 
 
 "Listen to me," said Melctal; "restrain the transports of 
 your tenderness, restrain those of your vengeance. This morn- 
 ing, at the very moment when the last sun which, alas ! I shall 
 ever see, gilded the tops of our mountains with his rising beams, 
 my son, Clara, and myself, were in the fields. Clara assisted 
 me to bind the sheaves; my son put them into the cart to which 
 two heifers were yoked to draw the harvest home. On a sudden 
 a soldier appeared, an emissary of the cruel Gesler. He came 
 directly to us, trod on our corn, examined the cart, and with an 
 insolent hand unyoked the heifers. ' By what right, ' said my 
 son, ' do you take away these animals, my only property, my 
 sole riches: those which support my family, and give to thy 
 Governor the salary thou receivest? ' * Obey, ' replied the 
 soldier, 'and question not thy masters.' At these words I saw 
 fury flaming in the eyes of my son: he seized the yoke of the 
 heifers detached by the satellite, tore it from his hands, and, 
 restrained by my cries, ' barbarian, ' said he, * thank my father : 
 his voice, more powerful in the heart of his son than the wrath 
 of justice, prevents me from ridding the earth of an enemy to 
 humanity. 'Fly, coward! Fly, lest this field should be the 
 tomb of a vile agent of tyranny.' 
 
 "The soldier was already out of sight: I held Melctal in my 
 arms. ' My son, ' said I, 'in the name of heaven, in the name 
 of thy father and thy child, protect thyself: this instant fly from 
 the vengeance of Gesler. I know him ; he is implacable ; he 
 will bathe himself in thy blood, and with it empurple the grey 
 hairs of thy father. Spare me, my son, my dear son! save my 
 life in saving thitie.' 
 " < No, father, ; replied he with the accents of piety, of ven- 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 15 
 
 geance, and despair. " No, never will I leave you. I'd rather 
 die in your defence, than tremble a moment for your safety. 
 Gesler, and all his power shall not tear me from the arms of 
 him who gave me being. I will, I ought 
 
 " ' Obey me, ' interrupted I, in a tone severe. ' I have nothing 
 to fear: leave me to guard thy cottage and thy daughter; leave 
 me the care of preserving her father and her heritage. Go ; 
 conceal thyself a few days in the mountains of Underwald. 
 Clara and I will come to thee when the storm is over. Go, 
 fly ; this instant fly ! I pray thee I command thee I insist on 
 it as thy father. ' 
 
 " At these words the fiery Melctal bowed his head in sadness; 
 he kneeled at my feet, bade adieu, and requested my benedic- 
 tion. I pressed him to my heart ; I bathed him with my tears. 
 Clara threw herself on his bosom ; Clara wiped off with her 
 kisses the tears which her unfortunate father in vain endeavoured 
 to conceal. Immediately tearing himself from his daughter, he 
 delivered her into my care; pressed my hand, and parted with- 
 out turning back his head. 
 
 "Clara and I, left alone, returned to our cottage: my 
 intention was to go immediately to the tyrant in Altorff; to see 
 htm, and personally convince myself whether every sentiment 
 of justice was a stranger to his soul. Alone, I determined to 
 .expose myself to his formidable presence; to obtain the return 
 of my son, or die in asking it : Jbut on a sudden I found my 
 cottage surrounded by a band of soldiers, all calling out for 
 Melctal. They interrogated me, pressed me to discover his 
 retreat, loaded me with chains, and dragged me before Gesler. 
 'Where is thy sou?' said he, in a voice sombre and savage. 
 ' Thou shall either expiate his crime in his stead, or deliver him 
 up to my vengeance. ' * Strike, ' said I : 'I thank God that I 
 owe to a barbarian the pleasure of giving life twice to my son/ 
 Gesler viewed me with a fixed eye, which displayed at once a 
 cool thirst of blood, and an embarrassment to discover a punish- 
 ment proportioned to my years: at length, after a long silence, 
 he made a sign to his executioners; and these monsters, before 
 him, without his even averting his eye, without even the smile 
 of crime certain of impunity, quitting his ferocious countenance, 
 seized me, threw me down, and with a sharp instrument tore 
 my eyeballs from their sockets! ! ! 
 
 "' It is enough,' said Gesler: Met the debilitated old wretch 
 
 .live. Release him; let him go and seek his son' They led 
 
 me forth; they pushe 1 me out of the palace gate. I walked 
 
 with my arms extended 1 fell into those of Clara; of Clara, 
 
16 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 who had followed me, and whom the cruel satellites had retained 
 at the outposts. I felt myself pressed to her bosom I felt 
 myself bathed with her tears: I heard, mingled with her cries 
 of giief, this word, this name, so sweet to my soul, ' my 
 father! my father! it is I!' I endeavoured to restrain her 
 cries I calmed her I concealed my sorrows I begged her 
 to lead me to my friend, to the friend of my son. l We are on 
 our way thither,' she replied. My heart told me so. You 
 spoke we are arrived! O, my dear William ! Alas! I can 
 no longer see thee; but I feel thee near me I press thy hand in 
 mine! Ah ! how it trembles at the recital of my sufferings! 
 My son is saved my friend remains! Thank heaven, I have 
 not lost my all ! " 
 
 END OF THE FIRST BOOK. 
 
 BOOK SECOND. 
 
 THUS spoke the old man. As soon as he had finished his narra- 
 tive, Emma, Clara, and Albert, threw themselves on his neck, 
 drowned his recital with their sobs, and bathed him with their 
 tears. Tell remained motionless, his forehead supported on 
 one hand, his looks fixed on the earth : the big tears fell drop 
 by drop from his half closed eyes; his bosom, oppressed with 
 a weighty load, respired with difficulty ; the hand which sup- 
 ported his head trembled with convulsive horror. After a long 
 and mournful silence, he suddenly started from his seat, embra- 
 ced the blind old man, pressed him twice to his palpitating 
 heart; endeavoured to speak, but could only pronounce with a 
 stifled voice " My father ! thou shalt be avenged. " 
 
 After these words, William relapsed into his former reverie. 
 Sullen, silent, gloomy, and absorbed in thought, he examined, 
 weighed afresh that which he had already examined ; and, pre- 
 sently resuming the powers of speech, he asked the old man, in 
 a calm and settled voice, whether he knew where Melctal was 
 concealed. "Y"es, " replied the unfortunate sire, "rny son is 
 hid in the deep caverns of the mountain of Faigel : those rocks, 
 desart and nearly inaccessible, are yet unknown to the emissaries, 
 the satellites of the tyrant. Melctal has promised, has sworn 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 17" 
 
 to me, not to leave it but with my consent." "Give him back 
 his promise," replied Tell; " I request it for him : and thou, 
 my son, prepare thyself to leave hence on the instant. Thou 
 must walk all night: by break of day thou wilt reach the 
 mountain of Faigel. Seek Melctal tarry not until thou ha^t 
 discovered him. Thou wilt tell him this : thy friend has sent 
 one to thee to inform thee of new crimes committed by the 
 execrable Gesler: he has torn out thy father's eyes. William 
 sends thee this poniard " 
 
 Tell then took from his girdle a dagger which he had never 
 parted with. Albert approached in silence and lespect to receive 
 the pointed steel at his father's hands, and concealed it in his 
 bosom. Emma and Clara, trembling, did not dare to interrogate 
 William : they looked at Albert, then at each other, and feared 
 to evince their inquietude for the perils he was about to encoun- 
 ter. Old Melctal, astonished at the order he had heard, asked 
 Tell what were his designs. * " Thy son knows them, " replied 
 William ; " and the sight of this poniard alone will tell him all 
 he ought to do. The moments now are precious: we must not 
 lose them. I have only one word to say Father thou shalt be 
 avenged. " 
 
 He then took Albert by the hand, and led him in silence to 
 his father's tomb: there after having received his oath, he confi- 
 ded to him a part of his projects, developed his resources, and 
 instructed him in detail what he should say to Melctul. 
 
 They both returned animated by a generous hope. Albert 
 was ready for his journey; Clara begged to accompany him : 
 she wished to go and embrace her father; to carry him fruits 
 bread, and those other necessaries of life which he wanted in 
 the mountains; and old Henry permitted it. Emma filled a 
 wicker basket with provisions, added milk and wine, gave thq 
 basket to her son, pressed him to her bosom, bade him farewell, 
 embraced him once again, and requested Clara in a low and 
 trembling voice to watch over a son so dear. Albert, armed 
 with a staff shod with iron, which his father explained the use 
 of, placed the basket on his head, offered his arm to Clara; and 
 in this manner they departed, like two young fawns emerging 
 from the darkest recesses of the thicket to seek more open 
 pastuie. 
 
 William beheld them go; he was clad in his hunting vest, 
 made of the skin of a savage wolf which he had himself destroyed : 
 this habit, fastened to his body by a broad belt, formed also a 
 covering for his head, where the teeth of the animal fell down 
 and glistened on his forehead. His legs were protected by bus- 
 
18 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 kins made of bear skin ; a leathern quiver filled with pointed 
 arrows hung over his shoulder ; and in his hand he bore that 
 formidable bow which he never yet bent in vain. Leaning on 
 this bow, regarding Emma with a mild yet determined counte- 
 nance ; *' my wife," said he, " I am about to leave you, even on 
 the instant. I leave in your hands the father of my friend, this 
 respectable old man, whom I honour as my own. Watch over 
 his slumbers; attend him by day and night; succour him, 
 comfort him; assuage his pains arid sorrows. Endeavour to 
 acquit yourself of the duties which we owe to misery, to age, to 
 friendship. I will soon return : two days will be sufficient for 
 my purpose. Acquaint no one of my absence; and let the door 
 of our cottage be closed till my return. ' ; 
 
 He spoke, and left the cottage ; and with a rapid hasty pace 
 took a different road from Albeit. 
 
 Meantime Clara and Albert descended the mountain to gain 
 one of the narrow paths that led to. Underwald : they took a 
 circuit above AltorfT; rapped at the door of a fisherman, a friend 
 of Tell, and requested him to put them across the lake. The 
 good man hastened to serve his young friends, quickly launched 
 his boat, offered his hand to hel'p them in, and, taking the oars, 
 he struck the transparent wave with equal and sturdy strokes. 
 Landed on the opposite shore, they thanked the friendly boat- 
 man, and ascended the barren rocks which on every side sur- 
 rounded the lake. Clara wanted, in turn, to share the weight 
 of the load with Albert, but he would not consent to it : at length, 
 after an affectionate struggle, they shared it, and, joining their 
 hands under the handle of the basket, they slowly trod the narrow 
 path ; now regarding each other with silent looks of love, now 
 stopping as if to take breath, that they might have the longer 
 time to converse more freely. 
 
 The moon had already disappeared; already had the morn- 
 ing, slow to rise in these cold regions, begun to shed her silver 
 beams over the shining pinnacles of the snow-clad mountains, 
 when our young travellers reached the foot of lofty Faigel, 
 They ascend the steep, and searched every where if they could 
 discover any goatherd, any peasant, who could point out to them 
 the solitary cave where Melctal lay concealed. No human 
 being, save themselves, appeared among these desert rocks. In 
 vain they stretched their sight to its utmost power of vision: 
 nothing was seen but fields of ice ; the chamois suspended on 
 the brow of the precipice, or bounding from rock to rock, with 
 the velocity of the eagle, at the sight of their destroyer, man. 
 
 About the eighth hour a slight smoke ascending from among 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 19 
 
 the rocks, attracted the eyes of Albert, who instantly pointed it 
 out to Clara: they flew towards the spot whence the smoke 
 issued, springing over the frozen chasms, traversing thick woods 
 of firs, and arrived at the cavern, which having entered, they 
 perceived at the extremity a twinkling flame. A man was 
 seated before the fire, which he supplied with dry branches of 
 fir: at the noise they made in entering, he turned round, quickly 
 sprung upon his feet, seized his axe, and, holding it raised up, 
 ready to strike, approached our young tiavellers. " What do 
 want?" exclaimed he in a voice of anger: "whom do you 
 seek? " " We are your children, my father, " answered Clara: 
 "'tis Albert 'tis your Clara. We come to bring you 
 nourishment, and fold you in our arms! " 
 
 She spoke, and, darting forward, hung on the neck of Melctal, 
 who throwing away his axe, uttered a cry of joy, pressed his 
 daughter to his heart, and silenced her with his kisses : then, 
 running to Albert, who regarded them in silence, he embraced 
 him; clasps him in his arms along with Clara ; pronounces the 
 name of his father of Tell, his faithful friend. He eagerly 
 interrupted their questions, by the tender caresses which he 
 lavished upon Clara and Albert. At length, leading them to 
 his humble hearth, he placed himself between them, and, seated 
 thus, listened to them with tearful eyes. 
 
 Clara, with great precaution, acquainted him with the cause 
 of their coming to seek him; the solemn commands which she 
 bore from the aged Henry. But soon the speech of Clara was 
 broken by frequent sobs: fain would she acquaint him with 
 the horrible misfortune she was bound to disclose, the atrocious 
 crime of Gesler. Thrice she commenced the painful recital 
 thrice she failed in the attempt. Albert came to her assistance : 
 " Oh! Melctal," said he, " behold those tears which we cannot 
 restrain; they are the messengers of fresh misfortunes. My 
 father charged me to acquaint you with them : my father told 
 me that his friend would hear them with resignation ; that he 
 would pity his beloved Clara ; and that he would suppress his 
 sorrows. " Here the youth related how Gesler, the execrable 
 Gesler! had revenged himself upon the unhappy Henry. Scarce 
 had he finished the recital, ere the furious Melctal rose, firmly 
 grasped his hatchet, and darted towards the mouth of the cave, 
 determined instantly to bathe it in the blood of the cruel Gesler. 
 Clara clung to his knees : Albert stood before him. "Recollect 
 yourself," said he; "think of my father. Do you no longer 
 think of him? Is he your friend no longer? Listen, however, to 
 what he bade me tell you. William is intent upon revenge; 
 
20 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 William is now with Verner; and this single word snould 
 suffice for you. Hear the orders of my father, which he twice 
 repeated. < Go, my son; acquaint Melctal with this new crime 
 of the tyrant. 'Tis not by furious passion we can be revenged ; 
 'tis 1 by courage and by prudence. I go to Schweitz, to seek 
 out Verner, and arm his canton. Let Melctal haste to Stantz; 
 there are his friends, the chiefs of Underwald. Let him assemble 
 them ; invite them to collect their arms; and immediately after- 
 wards let him wait for me in the cave of Grutly, where Verner 
 and myself will not be slow to join. " 
 
 Melctal listened with attention to Albert, and the melancholy 
 joy of vengeance cast its faint gleam upon his face. " Tell 
 shall be obeyed, " replied Melctal with transport. " I fly to 
 collect our friends: from to-morrow, Albert, you may assure 
 your father that two hundred of our countrymen, brave, faithful, 
 animated by the love of liberty, ready to yield their latest breath 
 in its defence, and resolved before they die to immolate thou- 
 sands of the slaves of tyrants on its sacred altar, shall in the 
 market place of Stantz unfurl the banners of liberty. The time 
 draws nigh to try my courage; 'twas restrained only by Tell, 
 by the solemn injunctions of my venerable father. My father 
 my friend restore me to myself: let us hasten, let us fly to 
 victory : she is already with us. I burn, I am on fire, to meet 
 the perfidious Gesler. Let him come ; let him advance against 
 us with his countless satellites, with all his power: I feel more 
 strong than all his force together : t march to meet him, in the 
 name of liberty of filial piety of outraged and disgraced 
 humanity. " 
 
 He spoke, and would forthwith have taken the road to Stantz. 
 Clara detained him ; she entreated him to devote a little time 
 to nature; to grant her one short hour, to enjoy his soothing 
 caresses ; and to strengthen his frame, weakened by fatigue and 
 long fasting, with the viands she had brought. The impetuous 
 yet feeling Melctal with tears embraced his darling daughter 
 grasped the hand of Albert consented to seat himself near the 
 tire; placed one on each side, and with them made a hasty but 
 frugal repast. Soon, however, armed with his hatchet, he bade 
 adieu to his dear children, clasped his daughter to his heart, 
 and, holding Albert by the hand, " Listen to me, " said he; 
 " listen to me, my boy. The fate of war is uncertain : I may, 
 perhaps, fall beneath its sword; but even then death will have 
 ils pleasures. Oh! it will be sweet so to die; and every noble, 
 feeling heart will envy me my lot. In that hope I wish now to 
 dispose of the only treasure I possess that treasure the dearest 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 21 
 
 to my soul, after the liberty of my country this treasure, my 
 young friend, is my beloved Clara. I give her to you ; from 
 this moment she is your's. Behold your spouse, Albert; place 
 your hands in mine: swear by my heart, which now beats 
 palpitating for my country, for you both, for my father swear 
 to love, to live, to die for one another. You are now united, 
 my children: receive my blessing, in the name of my father 
 in the name of my worthy friend." Clara and Albert dropt on 
 their knees before him, and with pure respect received the 
 paternal benediction. Tears of joy, not of anguish, rolled down 
 their cheeks; Melctal himself could not restrain them; and his 
 eyes, animated with the varying passions which filled his ardent 
 soul, sparkled through the shower. He raised his children; 
 again embraced them ; bid them again farewell ; again repeated 
 his commands for William ; then seizing his hatchet, he left the 
 cave with hasty steps, and bent his way towards Stanlz. 
 
 The two lovers, left alone, dared scarcely suffer their eyes to 
 meet. Mute, motionless, with downcast looks, still holding- 
 each other by the hand, they felt a trembling, mixed sensation 
 of joy, of happiness, and fear. Agitated by a crowd of opposing 
 ideas, their souls could scarcely stand the sudden shocks they 
 had experienced : their artless innocence for the first lime made 
 them fear to be alone. Albert, the first whose thoughts became 
 settled and collected, at length broke silence in broken senten- 
 ces: " Clara, you are mine : for a long time you have known 
 that Albert lived only for you; but the time, big with fate, the 
 dangers which our fathers run, these forbid us thinking of our- 
 selves. 'Tis to them alone we owe our solicitudes, and every 
 moment of our lives : let us hasten, then, my beloved Clara, to 
 my mother ; give her an account of the success of our journey ; 
 and when my father, and your venerable grandsire, shall have 
 sanctioned the benediction which Melctal has bestowed upon 
 us, then, and not till then, shall I dare to tell you to what 
 happiness I am arrived. " 
 
 Clara, without answering him, warmly pressed his hand, then 
 left the cavern; and they both retraced the path they had 
 already traversed. 
 
 But the sun, though scarcely arrived at half his course, cast 
 but a pale and sickly light through the opaque and misty clouds : 
 a greyish mantle covered the azure sky ; and flakes of snow 
 , flitting through the air, like the fleces of the lambs which the 
 shears deprive them of, were accumulating towards the north. 
 Soon a cold wind arose, and rolled together with rapid haste 
 the snowy bodies : broken by the wind, they fell like the most 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 violent torrent of rain, filled all the paths, gathered in drifted 
 mounds, and almost blinded the unfortunate travellers, who 
 could not resist its impetuosity. Clara and Albert, unable to 
 proceed, sought shelter amidst the rocks. The snow, still falling 
 fast, almost covered them. Albert feared for Clara: she, to 
 cheer him, smiled at seeing him covered with the flakes, which 
 she playfully shook off, and gave the winds to scatter. The 
 storm ceased, at length ; the refulgent golden beams of the star 
 of day pierced the thick veil which covered them, and reflected 
 themselves like sparkling diamonds on the snowy surface. The 
 two lovers resumed their journey, but they no longer could 
 point out their way : a thick and snowy carpet covered alike 
 the rocks, the fields, the precipices. Albert, leading Clara by 
 the hand, advanced with caution : with his staff he proved the 
 depths of the snow, and he permitted not Clara to take one step 
 till he was assured there was no danger. Clara, fearing but for 
 him, followed in his tracks; held him firmly by the hand, to 
 assist him if he stumbled : yet this long, this painful walk, with 
 every moment fresh dangers attending it, had a thousand charms 
 for the tender Clara. 
 
 Constrained to take a circuitous route, to follow the borders 
 of the torrents, where the rapid force of the waters left the bank* 
 uncovered by the snow, our travellers consumed the rest of the 
 day, and in the evening arrived near the village of Erfeld. 
 Albert instantly recognized the spot; he was certain to reach 
 Altorff that night by ascending the banks of the Reuss: he 
 encouraged his companion, and the moon, which was just rising, 
 took from him all fear of going astray. More reconciled, they 
 followed the left bank of the river, which waters the Canton of 
 Uri, when they were joined by a man armed with a long cross- 
 bow, and clad in a large cloak which entirely enveloped him. 
 Frozen snow and icicles were alone observed upon his cap, 
 upon his mantle, and his locks, matted together by the hoar: 
 this man met the young couple full in front, who halted at the 
 sight of him. With a broken voice, " my young friends," said 
 he, " in me you behold a wandering hunter. I have lost sight 
 of my companions: I know not the way to Altorff, where my 
 absence must have already caused much uneasiness. Can you 
 conduct me, my young friends? I will amply recompense your 
 zeal and your assistance." "The reward is in the service 
 itself," quickly answered Clara, "We know the road to 
 Altorff; and we will experience as much pleasure in restoring 
 you to your family, as you would in restoring us to our worthy 
 parents. Follow us, and we will engage to conduct you to the 
 

 WILLIAM TELL. 23 
 
 city in an hour. " The hunter joined them, and, observing them 
 with much attention by the brightness of the moon, he walked 
 for some time in silence by their side. 
 
 After a while, the stranger, breaking silence, addressing him- 
 self to Albert, said "Young man, what are your parents? 
 Where in Altorff do you dwell? " " I am the son of a labouring 
 peasant, "answered Albert, without noticing him. " My father- 
 does not live in the town. " " In what part, then, is his retreat? " 
 "In the mountains in the midst of a desert, where he culti- 
 vates the fields, and practises the virtues." "The virtues!" 
 quickly retorted the stranger, with a contemptuous smile : " I 
 should not have thought the name even of virtue was known to 
 you at your age. " " 'Twas the first word I lisped, " answered 
 Albert, in a firm tone of voice. " You know, then, what it 
 means ? " " I hope so. " " Explain it, then, to me. " " Three 
 words will suffice : the fear of God. the love of Man, the hatred 
 of their Oppressors." "And who are their oppressors?" 
 " Tyrants and their slaves. " " In Switzerland there are no 
 tyrants." Clara could not contain herself: a cry burst from 
 her. Albert replied not ; and the stranger, relapsing into thought, 
 pursued his way in silence. 
 
 They approached the walls of Altorff: already they beheld 
 the glittering lances of the soldiers who were on duty at the 
 gates. The gloomy stranger suddenly addressed Albert in a 
 hurried voice, and said, " what is your father's name ? " Clara, 
 trembling and afraid, pressed strongly the hand of Albert. He, 
 to whom deceit or falsehood was impossible, hesitated a few 
 minutes; till, urged by the stranger, he looked at him with a 
 steady countenance. "We have" been happy to put you in 
 your way," said he; " let that suffice at present. You shall 
 not know from me my father's name: 'tis known only to his 
 friends. " " Imprudent youth ! " eagerly exclaimed the stranger, 
 with a voice broken by passion; "your father cannot, shall not, 
 escape me. Nor shall you escape the chains I have prepared 
 for you, but at the moment when I shall know the whole of 
 your seditious family. Know that I have the power and the 
 means to discover and to punish the guilty! " 
 
 They reached the gates : the stranger pronounced the name 
 of Gesler; and the soldiers, quickly turning out to receive him, 
 presented their pikes before him. " Seize these young people ! " 
 exclaimed the ferocious Governor; "drag them to prison; and 
 be careful to bring before me the first inhabitants of Altorff who 
 shall demand their release. " 
 
 He is obeyed : Clam and 1 Albert were surrounded by the 
 
24 
 
 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 guards. Without pity for their youth, for the feeble state to 
 which their toilsome journey had reduced them, they are con- 
 ducted to the citadel, and a gloomy dungeon becomes their 
 abode. Calm in the midst of their disgrace, regarding each 
 other with equal tenderness, they secretly thanked their savage 
 keepers for permitting them to be together, and heard without 
 dismay the heavy door of their dungeon creek slowly on its 
 hinges. They stretched themselves on the straw, thrown to 
 them in pity, and shared the coarse bread which was left for 
 them; Tearless, and without remorse, uneasy only at the alarm 
 which their absence must cause at home, and the dangers which 
 threatened William should he confront the tyrant. They hoped, 
 they prayed, that Emma and the aged Henry might still believe 
 them in the cave with Melctal; that they might remain ignorant 
 of their misfortunes. 
 
 Wholly occupied with this pious idea, these youthful lovers, 
 imprisoned and under the very knife of a merciless barbarian, 
 rested on their flinty bed in peace : no frightful dreams troubled 
 their repose; and they enjoyed that calmness, that serenity of 
 soul, which virtue alone can bestow on us, even in the dungeon. 
 Not so the Governor: surrounded in his splendid palace by 
 numerous bodies of troops, armed with all his power, able by a 
 single word to doom to destruction whomsoever he pleased, he 
 could not taste the sweets of sleep, and the most fearful visions 
 fluttered over his troubled fancy. Gloomy, sullen, furious, 
 tormented by a crowd of contending passions, fearing for his 
 life, yet meditating fresh punishments, fresh tortures, for those 
 he dreaded, to preserve that wretched life, to place betwixt his 
 crimes and him a bloody torment, thus reasoned with himself: 
 " How dreadful must that hatred be which these people bear 
 me, since even their children, their very infants, cannot conceal 
 it from the traveller, the stranger, too, whom chance throws in 
 their way ! If they so talk, what then must their fathers say ? 
 What have I not to fear from a seditious rabble, whose numbers 
 hourly increase, and who cherish the hope of depriving me, 
 together with my sovereign power, of my life to plunge the 
 dagger to my heart? Yet, 1 will prevent them : yes, I shall 
 suppress with threats and terror those who shall escape my 
 angry justice. I shall contrive new means to know my enemies : 
 all are so, I doubt not; yet shall not all dare to own it; and 
 the boldest shall perish first, just victims to my vengeance. " 
 
 He gave himself entirely up to wrath, to the maddening dic- 
 tates of his furious passions revolved in his almost distracted 
 mind a thousand rude undigested projects adopted them 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 25 
 
 dismissed them cherished the wild chimeras of his tortured 
 brain and gave, in his imagination, the most merit to those 
 orders he then framed, which appeared best to express the con- 
 tempt he felt for the very beings whom he dreaded ; and he 
 finally came to the resolution of adopting that project of a 
 madman, by which all the inhabitants of Uri were forced basely 
 to bow their heads before that cap which their atrocious Gover- 
 nor had worn. 
 
 In vain did reason, now almost astray, present to him the 
 dangers of this absurd, this useless order: reason was no longer 
 listened to. He instantly summoned the chief officers of his 
 guards; enquired with eager anxiety upon the zeal, the devotion, 
 the attatchment of the mercenary soldiers; distributed amongst 
 them the riches which his avarice yielded up to his fears; and, 
 addressing Sarnern, the faithful secret minister of his most guilty 
 thoughts, "to-morrow," said he, hastily, "to-morrow, at the 
 dawn of day, let a lofty poll be erected in the centre of the 
 market place of Altorff. On the summit let this cap, which I 
 now deliver into your hands, be placed, exposed to every eye. 
 Let my brave troops in arms surround the place, guard every 
 avenue, and oblige the passing slaves to bow with reverence 
 and respect before this emblem of my power, of the dignity of 
 the Governor of these Cantons : let the least disobedience, "the 
 slightest murmers even, against rny will, be punished instantly 
 by close imprisonment. Let it be your care to read in their 
 countenances, in their eyes, and in the expression of the looks 
 of these base men whom Nature has ordained for slaves, the 
 secret sentiments of hatred, of independence, of courage; for 
 even bravery is a crime in those whose duty it is only to obey. 
 Go ! execute my will : and, more, let all our spies be employed 
 to discover, if possible, the guilty parents of those two young 
 persons whom I have ordered to be kept in chains. " 
 
 He spoke, and Sarnem, obedient to his will, hastened to fulfil 
 his orders. The soldiers received in advance the wages of their 
 guilty purpose; both wine and money were prodigally distri- 
 buted amongst them. The spies of Gesler spread themselves 
 throughout the city, in the vicinity ; sought to introduce them- 
 selveajinto the different families, in order, by relating a false 
 tale of pity, how two young persons had become the victims of 
 Gesler's cruelty, to discover what effect this would produce 
 amongst the people, to convert into a crime even the feelings of 
 pity and compassion. 
 
 But heaven, all-righteous heaven, who watched over the 
 lowly cot of Tell, concealed it from the search of Gesler's emis- 
 
26 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 saries: they disturbed not the peaceful dwelling of the virtuous 
 Emma, who alone, with the aged, sightless Henry, counted the 
 tedious hours, far from her husband, from her son. The night 
 passed slowly on in this uncertain state of anxious expectation : 
 the solitary lamp, which shed its glimmering light upon them, 
 still continued to burn; and neither the aged Henry, nor the 
 good, the gentle Emma, as yet felt disposed to taste the refreshing 
 aid of sleep. They spoke with anxious fondness of their children : 
 the slightest murmers of the wintry blast, the least noise without, 
 made them listen at the door. The bleak north wind, whistling 
 through the lofty branches of the trees, now robbed of their 
 leafy honours; the barking of their faithful dog, who traversed 
 his accustomed path around the cottage, every instant gave new 
 hope to Emma. She arose she ran towards the door, every 
 moment expecting Albert. She looked through the casement 
 she beheld nothing but the shades of night she listened she 
 heard only the roaring of the torrent. Sad with hopes betrayed 
 she slowly returned to her seat beside the old man, from whom 
 she fain would hide her fears and her anxieties. "Your son 
 has detained them, " said she, endeavouring to suppress the 
 rising sigh. "Do, my good old man, do take some rest: sleep, 
 and I will watch over thee till morning." " Yes, my child," 
 answered Henry, a my son has no doubt detained them. I 
 yield to your entreaties; I will court repose : but heed me not, 
 I pray: compose yourself, and calmly hope the best." The 
 old man at length, to satisfy her, feigned to sleep : They both 
 preserved silence, in order to lull each other into a deceitful 
 security; both endeavoured to suppress the sighs which struggled 
 hard for utterance. At the slightest noise, they both arose with 
 eager haste; but, alas! their hopes were alike deceitful. 
 
 END OF BOOK SECOND. 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 27 
 
 BOOK THIRD. 
 
 MEANTIME Tell, long before the peep of day, had arrived 
 within the walls of Schwitz: he knocked at the door of Verner. 
 The faithful mastiffs, steady to their trust, made the place resound 
 with their loud and hollow bark. Verner , restless in his mind, 
 already seated before a blazing fire, hastened to the door, opened 
 it at the voice of his friend, and led him to the cheering hearth. 
 The surly, threatening animals no sooner recognized the faithful 
 friend of their master, than they overwhelmed him with their 
 rude caresses, and sought to hide their enormous heads beneath 
 the benumbed, half frozen hands of William. 
 
 " My friend, " exclaimed the hero, " the hour is at length 
 arrived when we must deliver our country from its scourge, or 
 perish in the glorious cause of Liberty. 'Tis not your cautious 
 prudence that I now consult; 'tis not from your experienced 
 wisdom that I ask advice ; 'tis your courage I would rouse. No 
 more in tardy council must we now debate. Crime heaped on 
 crime accumulates too fast; and Gesler, Gesler himself, has 
 sounded the signal of revolt. " 
 
 With these words he threw down a heavy bundle of various 
 arms, of pikes, of cross-bows, arrows, and well proved swords, 
 which he bore upon his shoulders. Verner beheld them with a 
 smile of joy : " Before I listen to one word more, ''* said he, 
 " I must conceal this precious treasure. We may be surprised; 
 for, when we are dependant on a despot's will, our house no 
 longer is our castle. " 
 
 They then, taking the bundle of arms together, concealed it 
 in a place of perfect safety. Returned and seated by the fire, 
 William related to Verner the barbarity of the Governor the 
 dire misfortune of the aged Henry the flight of his son Melctal 
 the journey of Albert in search of him and that Albert, at 
 this very hour, should be at Grutty to assure Melctal of their 
 co-operation. Verner listened with deep attention; made him 
 repeat the details of William's bold designs; weighed them; 
 discussed them with him; invented obstacles which it was pos- 
 sible they might encounter; till satisfied by the replies of Tell, 
 
28 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 who had foreseen and guarded against every casualty, he grasped 
 his hands, and exclaimed with fervor, " my friend, let us com- 
 mence the glorious work! Verner is ready." 
 
 Separately, and by opposite roads, they carried one by one 
 the arms which they had deposited, securely to their friends in 
 the city to their friends in the villages by which Schwitz is 
 surrounded: they placed in the hands of the enemies of tyranny 
 both the means of its destruction and their own revenge; they 
 thanked the chilling frost; they thanked the showers of snow, 
 which, falling in abundance, obscured the day, and rendered 
 trackless the roads which they had passed in safety. Repeat- 
 edly did they return to distribute the arms, which they were 
 obliged singly to do. They employed full twelve hours on this 
 important work, inspiring the hearts of those whom they thus 
 armed, receiving their sacred oaths in the presence of the 
 Almighty; acquainting them with the crimes of Gesler, anima- 
 ting them to revenge, and with increased ardour varying their 
 exhortations to point out fresh paths that might lead to Freedom. 
 
 The entire day was consumed in this occupation: all the 
 arms were distributed. William retained nothing but his bow; 
 Verner, a single pike. At length, almost overcome with fatigue, 
 they entered Verner $ house, took a slight refreshment; and, 
 regardless of repose, pressed by the appointed time, which 
 quick approached, by the promise made to Melctal, they quitted 
 once more the city, and took the road to the cavern of Grutty. 
 
 They marched along through the deep snows which the keen 
 northern blast had collected around them ; they arrived at the 
 borders of the lake, sought a boat in the darkness, and found a 
 frail and almost shattered bark moored strongly to the shore, 
 and which the urging waves, raised high by the whistling north, 
 dashed against the rocky bank. Verner, seeing the lake so 
 much disturbed, asked William, if, skilful as he was known to 
 be, he would venture to struggle against the tempest. "Melctat 
 is waiting for us," exclaimed Tell, "and our country's fate 
 depends upon our meeting. Do you ask me if I can cross the 
 lake? I know not that the thing is possible; but I know that 
 it must be done. I count but little on my long tried skill; but 
 I trust to the God of Heaven and Earth, who watches over 
 souls so pure as ours, and who delights in the protection of the 
 sons of Freedom." 
 
 He spoke, and sprung into the boat: Verner followed him. 
 Tell hastily cut the rope which held her to the shore, seized the 
 oars, and pushed off from the bank ; but whether it was the 
 effect of chance, whether the all-just and powerful God whom 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 29 
 
 William silently invoked, watched over the deliverers of 
 Switzerland, the wind suddenly fell calm; the high-swollen 
 wave decreased, and on its now even surface lightly bore the 
 hark of Tell, who, seizing the oars, made his way with the rapi- 
 dity of an arrow. He quickly crossed the lake, arrived at the 
 opposite shore, leaped out, fastened his boat, and the two friends 
 hastened to the cavern which had long been known to them. 
 
 Melctal was waiting for them at the entrance. No sooner did 
 he perceive Tell than he darted forward, and sprung into his 
 arms; pronounced in sobbing accents the names of his father, 
 and his friend; confounded the two names so dear; and scarcely 
 could contain the varying sentiments which almost overpowered 
 him. William wept with him; held his hand, which he pressed 
 with force; led him to the bottom of the cave; and there, 
 obscured in darkness, the three friends, seated on the rocks, 
 thought not of their own personal griefs, but their whole souls 
 were wrapt up in the destiny of their country. Tell was the first 
 to speak: "Melctal," said he, "thy father lives; he is safe 
 beneath my roof: be satisfied of this, and let your filial piety 
 give place to your duty to your country. We must examine, 
 we must find out the means, most sure, most prompt, to deliver 
 her; to restore her to her freedom; to revenge the injuries, the 
 barbarities, the excesses, she so long has endured. Each of us 
 in our respective Cantons enjoys the esteem, the attachment, 
 the confidence of our brethren. The brave inhabitants of 
 Schwitz will obey the voice of Verner: they only wanted arms, 
 which this day Verner and myself have given them. These 
 arms, added to what our friends at Schwitz had already procu- 
 red, will insure us two hundred well armed soldiers, who have 
 chosen Verner for their leader. We have their faith pledged 
 to us we have their oaths: we may trust to them even as to 
 ourselves. 
 
 " In Uri, within the walls of Altorff, where the presence of 
 the tyrant augments and nourishes the terror, where the strong 
 citadel he has built seems to bid defiance to our efforts and 
 secure his power, I found it more difficult to find adherents to 
 our cause. Every heart, 'tis true, glowed with the love of liberty : 
 but the numerous satellites of Gesler, his infamous emissaries, 
 watched with the most scrupulous care to discover and to extin- 
 guish the smallest spark of this most sacred fire. As yet, I 
 cannot reckon on the strength of Altorff: the people groan 
 beneath the rod of despotism; daily they behold the deadly axe 
 raised over him, who with a suspicious eye regards the haughty 
 Governor. The people of Altorff will not attack him ; but they 
 
30 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 will not defend him: Altorff must, then, be conquered. But 
 in the villages which surround it, I have found an hundred 
 chosen companions, ready to die with me : they are well armed 
 they are brave: this is all that I can offer. Speak, Melctal; 
 acquaint us with the result of your efforts in Underwald ; and 
 let us now irrevocably fix the hour, the instant, when we shall 
 unite our strength, and lead to victory or death. '' 
 
 "JYJy friends," replied Melctal, "I was far from counting 
 on the force which is already in your hands, and yet I was 
 confident of success. An hundred and fifty youthful warriors 
 are already prepared in Underwald; this very day have I met 
 them. They chose me for their chief, and burn for the combat. 
 My friends, let us not lose an instant; let us assemble this very 
 night under the walls of Altorff; let us unite our trusty bands 
 in the very heart of the city; let us attack the fort without delay. 
 The people will assist us. We will punish this cruel Governor, 
 and let his eyes be torn out in the very place where my father 
 But I rave; pardon a wretched son. I repeat, how- 
 ever, that spite of the night spite of the snow which now covers 
 the earth, and renders the roads almost impassible let us 
 assemble by to-morrow's dawn in the market place of Altorff, 
 and let a sudden attack make us masters of the citadel, or bury 
 us in its ruins! " 
 
 "Yes, we will doubtless perish," calmly replied Verner; 
 "and this death, glorious 'tis true, will be useless to our country. 
 You do not, Metctalf clearly comprehend what William has 
 just told us. The hundred friends of whom he is so certain are 
 dispersed among the villages of Uri: we must have time to 
 collect them. As four thousand well trained troops are con- 
 stantly on duty near the tyrant, the people of Altorff groaning 
 beneath the weight of Gesler's power, of his guards, his nume- 
 rous army, dare not attempt to join us. Our little army, arriving 
 in a tumultuous manner, in different groupes, will not be able 
 to obtain admission to the city, but may be buried under its 
 ramparts. The three Cantons together are too weak to overturn 
 the power of Gesler, who, trusting to the great colossal strength 
 of the German empire, possesses many fortified places; to lay 
 seige to which, however short, would give time to the Austrian 
 troops to be reinforced to thrice the number of our population. 
 Trust to my experience; let us be well assured of ample succour 
 before we attempt our enterprise. Think you that we alone 
 shall be the only friends to Freedom? Think you that Zurich, 
 Lucerne, the inhabitants of the rough mountains of Zug, of 
 Glaris, and of Appenzel, do not shudder like ourselves, over- 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 31 
 
 whelmed by the chains of slavery? Doubt not but that these 
 generous people suffer equally with us the glorious thirst of 
 independence. My heart foretels to me that they will one day 
 become a part of ourselves a Republic dreaded and respected 
 by all the Kings and Princes of the Universe. Let us, then, 
 hasten the glorious day; let us dispatch deputies to Lucerne, 
 to Zug, to Zurich; let us organize a general conspiracy; let us 
 fix the day, the sacred day, when, at the same hour throughout 
 all Switzerland, all the friends of Liberty shall at the same time 
 attack their tyrants. Then shall we blaze forth then shall 
 Altorff declare itself; and the astonished Governor, surrounded 
 by an armed people, shall fall beneath our efforts, before his 
 messengers, every where intercepted, can bear the tidings of his 
 dancrer to the Emperor, his master." 
 
 Verncr was silent. Melctal still murmered, and seemed 
 disposed to combat his arguments; when William began, and 
 both listened in respectful silence. " I admire your boldness, v 
 said he to Melctal; " I excuse your ardour; but it would be 
 fatal to our purpose. I honour, I respect, your prudent caution, 
 Verner: but it also has its dangers. Those conspiracies can 
 never prosper which are not entrusted to a faithful few: a 
 single word, a single error, the most trifling accident, can over- 
 turn the well laid plan of many years. In the various towns 
 and villages which we propose to associate in our great design, 
 a single traitor will be sufficient to overturn our purpose; to 
 give his devoted country a prey to fire and sword ; and to behold 
 her chosen sons, her favourite patriots, perish disgracefully upon 
 the scaffold. No! let us confide to no one our great, our 
 sublime, designs. We, I trust, are in ourselves a host we, I 
 hope, will suffice to lay the foundation of our country's freedom : 
 and when Uri, Schwitz, Underwald, shall have displayed upon 
 their mountain tops the standard of Liberty, we or our sons will 
 see the other Cantons bravely fighting under the sacred banner, 
 or reposing beneath its shade. 
 
 " Verner, it is full time that our plans should burst the veil. 
 But I must intreat you, Melctal, to allow me yet a few days 
 more. Hear, then, my plan, which 1 now submit to you. 
 
 "Underwald and Schwitz are armed. Three hundred and 
 fifty warriors of these two Cantons are ready, you say, to attend 
 your steps; appoint a rendezvous for them; not in a city, not in a 
 village, but in some sequestered vale some desert, unfrequented 
 spot, where assembling by different routes, they can readily unite, 
 and put themselves in motion at the same instant. While you are 
 employed on this business, I shall return to Uri, where, seconded 
 
32 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 by the brave Furst, the only one of my com panions to whom I have 
 confided my plans, I willassemble the hundred enemies of tyranny, 
 whose stifled murmurs and whose courage have made me deem 
 them worthy of being our associates in the glorious enterprise : 
 the brave Furst will seek them in Maderan and Ursereen, even 
 amongst the lofty mountains from which the Aar, the Tesen, 
 the Rhine, and the Rhone, derive their rapid sources. I alone 
 will remain at Altorff, where a messenger from Furst will 
 acquaint me of the instant when his valiant troop shall be in 
 motion. Instantly on the receipt of this intelligence, I will set 
 fire to an immense pile of faggots, which with my own hands I 
 have already raised on the mountain near my cottage. When 
 you shall perceive the flames ascending from this beacon, do 
 you, Verner, and you, Melctal, immediately depart with your 
 brave followers for the appointed place of meeting; from thence, 
 when you shall have formed a junction, march directly on 
 towards Altorff. I have already calculated the time the dis- 
 tance. Furst with the brave sons of Uri, Verner with those of 
 Schwitz, and Melclal with those of Underwald, will arrive 
 nearly at the same instant, at noon, at the north and east gates 
 of the city. I, my gallant friends, will be alone, in the midst 
 of the people, whom my voice, my efforts, shall rouse to action 
 in the cause of Liberty. My lips shall make the sacred name 
 resound throughout the city; and Liberty! Liberty! shall be 
 our cry : you shall pronounce it when you enter the city's walls. 
 The people, astonished and surprised to see, to hear at the same 
 time, that Uri, Schwitz, ard Underwald, have flown to their 
 assistance the people, I repeat, yielding only to their hatred, 
 their fury, against Gesler, will join in crowds our valiant troops. 
 We will attack the citadel, which the tyrant, taken by surprise, 
 will in vain be able to defend. Soon shall we behold our 
 sacred banner waving over the frowning battlements; and all 
 Switzerland, astonished at this our first, this daring effort, will 
 seek the high honour of being associates in our future combats." 
 He spoke. Melctal threw himself on his neck, and bathed 
 the hero with tears of joy. Verner himself was persuaded ; 
 Verner adopted his opinion. The three deliverers, without 
 uniting themselves to each other by fresh oaths, oaths unnecessary 
 to their great souls! the three heroes separated, after deciding 
 that they would not commence their inarch until the moment 
 that the flaming signal should be given by William. Melctal 
 returned to Stantz, to prepare his friends for the occasion : 
 Verner and Tell returned to their boat, and crossed the peaceful 
 lake. Verner took the road to Schw r itz, and William that to Altorff. 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 He walked in gloomy thoughtfulness on the margin of the 
 lake, and determined ere he returned home to visit his friends 
 in Altorff, and inform them of his grand designs. The sun had 
 not yet set behind the mountains when he reached the town; he 
 advanced as far as the market place, where the first object which 
 attracted his attention was a lofty pole erected in the centre, on 
 the top of which he distinguished a rich cap bordered with gold. 
 Around the pole a great number of soldiers walked in silence, 
 and seemed to guard with respect this new emblem of power 
 and domination. William walked forward, astonished; and 
 presently he perceived the people of Altorff prostrate themselves 
 before this cap! before this pole! and the armed satellites of 
 the tyrant curb still lower with the points of their lances, those 
 who thus humiliated themselves. Scarcely master of his indig- 
 nation, Tell recoiled on his own: he would not believe his eyes; 
 he remained mute and motionless, rested himself on his bow of 
 yew, and beheld with disdain the cowardice of the people and 
 the villany of the soldiers. 
 
 Sarnem, who commanded the guard : Sarnem, whose ferocious 
 zeal delighted in going beyond the orders of the tyrant, soon 
 distinguished that man who alone, in the midst of a people 
 degraded and enslaved, stood upright with the firm dignity of 
 manly pride. He hastened towards him, and, looking at him 
 with eyes boiling with fury, "whoever thou art," said he, 
 " tremble, lest I punish thy tardiness in obeying the orders of 
 Gesler! Art thou a stranger to the proclamation which obliges 
 every inhabitant of Altorff to salute with respect this emblem of 
 his power? " " I was ignorant of it, " replied William; " nor 
 could I have thought that the intoxication of the supreme power 
 could have ever arrived at this excess of tyranny, of madness, 
 and of folly: but he is justified by the cowardice of the people. 
 I excuse and approve Gesler: he ought to treat us as slaves; 
 he cannot sufficiently despise those who can submit to such 
 degradation. As to me, I never bow the knee, save to the God 
 whom I adore." "Audacious wretch!'' replied Sarnem; 
 " thou shalt expiate thy audacity. Fall on thy knees, and disarm 
 the vengeance of that hand which can punish thee." "My 
 own should punish me," exclaimed Tell, looking him sternly 
 in the face; " my own should punish me, if I were capable of 
 obeying thee. " 
 
 He ended. The cruel Sarnem gave a signal: immediately 
 
 a number of the soldiery seized William, tore from him his 
 
 bow, and deprived him of his quiver. Surrounded by numerous 
 
 glittering swords, all directed to his heart, they led him, they 
 
 , dragged him, before the Governor. 
 
34 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 Calm in the midst of the soldiery, deaf to their gross insults, 
 he crossed his arms upon his manly breast: he appeared before 
 the tyrant he beheld him with a look of disdain ; let the accuser 
 speak without interruption; and, in a silence which insult could 
 not break, he waited the interrogatories of Geskr. 
 
 The dignity of his manner, the calm serenity of his counte- 
 nance, disturbed the Governor: an involuntary terror, a secret 
 presentiment, seemed to whisper to his heart that he beheld 
 before him the punisher of his ciimes, THE DELIVERER OF 
 SWITZERLAND: he could not bear to Jook at him. He hesi- 
 tated to interrogate him : at length, in a tremulous voice, he 
 said, " what motive could prompt thee to disobey my orders? 
 to disregard the sign, be it what it might, of my power, the 
 respect and homage which thou owest to me ? Excuse thyself: 
 I know how to pardon. " William looked at him with a dis- 
 dainful smile : " punish me, " said he, " but ask not my thoughts. 
 Thou hast never heard the truth; thou canst not hear it. "- 
 ' Prove it," replied Gesler; " let me hear it from thy mouth. 
 I wish to be instructed by thee, by thyself, in my errors and my 
 duties." "I instruct not tyrants," replied Tell; "yet the 
 horror which their presence inspires does not deprive me of my 
 courage. 1 can recal their crimes, I can predict, their fate. 
 Listen, then, since thou do'st consent to hear me. 
 
 "The measure is soon filled. The cup of misery which angry 
 heaven has remitted to thy care overflows on every side; his 
 vengeance, now fulfilled by thee, will next in justice strike thy- 
 self. Hear the cries of the innocent confined in thy dungeons; 
 hear the 'cries of the children and the widows, who ask at thy 
 hands their husbands and their fathers, expiring by thy order 
 with protracted torments. Their bleeding shades wander round 
 thy dwelling. Seest thou not that ghastly form? 'tis the shade 
 of a murdered father. Now, it raises its hands to heaven for 
 vengeance; now, it bends to earth for its suffering wife and 
 infant children: it &ill pursue thee in thy dreams, in the shape 
 of a body covered with villainous wounds. Its blood will gush 
 upon thy hands, and awake thee at the midnight hour: this 
 blood shall thou see in the shades of night; thou shalt see it, 
 and in vain will thy closing eyes endeavour to hide it from 
 thy sight! The few who remain alive will abandon their 
 dwellings, and their little all, the fruit of years of labour, to 
 thy insatiate avarice; they will fly, they will conceal them- 
 selves in the forests and in shelving rocks. Then, what will 
 this trembling people do? a people to whom thy name inspires 
 greater terror than the falling of the mountain snows about to 
 fury our villages. What will they do? Kneeling on the rocks,- 
 
WILLIAM TELL 3/> 
 
 they will supplicate heaven for vengeance; supplicate heaven to 
 exterminate the destroyer of mankind! Yes, Geslcr, I forewarn 
 thee of it. The cries of so many persecuted innocents, despoiled, 
 debased, immolated by thy order; this blood shed hourly by 
 thy hands, the vapour of which forms a thick and impervious 
 cloud around thee; this blood is ascended to heaven: its sup- 
 plicating cries have reached the throne of mercy, have reached 
 the throne of the Deity, and soon will his justice strike thee! 
 My country's deliverance it at hand: such my wishes, such my 
 thoughts, and such my fondest hopes. Thou requested my 
 sentiments: art thou satisfied? I have nothing more to add; 
 for I will not degrade my reason so far as to tell thee a word 
 respecting those mad decrees, those orders of a worse than mad- 
 man, which dooms the unfortunate people of Uri to bow before 
 the cap which covered thy head. Thou knowest all, and now 
 ma vest thou command my punishment. n 
 
 Gesler listened in silence, and contained his wrath the better 
 to bring it down more heavily on the victim's head : he suspended 
 his rage in the hope of finding, of inventing a punishment which 
 could avenge him most of a man who appeared to despise death. 
 He thought of those children whom he had the evening before 
 confined in chains; he recalled to mind their firm and undaunted 
 
 .manner: and, comparing it with what he had just heard, his 
 ingenious fury suspected, divined, that those children, already 
 so proud, so deeply impressed with the hatred of tyranny, could 
 only belong to him who braved his wrath. He determined to 
 assure himself of the truth, and gave a secret order that they 
 should be brought forth. T 
 
 Sarnem hastened to fetch them. During this period the cun- 
 ning Gesler, dissimulating his wrath, feigned an indifference of 
 thought; coolly interrogated William respecting his situation, 
 his family, and the rank he held in Uri. William did not 
 conceal his name; and this name, famous in Altorff, struck the 
 Governor with .terror and alarm. "Why! how!" said he, 
 with surprise and fear mingled in his countenance, "is it thee? 
 thee, so renowned for conducting a boat across the tempestuous 
 lake? thee, so expert at the bow? whose arrows never miss 
 their aim?" "Even so," replied Tell; and I blush that my 
 name should only be known by unavailing attempts in my 
 country's cause. This vain glory is unworthy the death I am 
 
 about to suffer in pronouncing the name of Liberty. " 
 
 At that instant Sarnem returned leading Clara and Albert. 
 When Tell perceived his son, he uttered a shriek of joy, and 
 flew towards him. " O Albert! " he cried, " O my son! I can 
 
 embrace thee yet! but where? how? why . . . .?" "No! 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 no ! you are not my father, " Albert immediately replied, who 
 saw William's danger, and knew the fate which Gesler had pre- 
 pared for his unfortunate father. "No; I repeat it, I do not 
 know you. My family [looking round him] are not here." 
 William, astonished, remained motionless, his arms open and 
 extended : he could not comprehend why his son should refuse 
 his embraces, and dare to deny any knowledge of him. Clara 
 augmented his surprise in confirming what Albert had said, and 
 repeating with him that William was not their father. The 
 heart of Tell murmured at the fact, and began to be angry at 
 the measure; whilst Gesler, whose savage eyes observed their 
 varied emotions; Gesler ; who now had penetrated the mystery 
 which he wished to know; enjoyed at once the fear, surprise, 
 and sorrow, of the father and his children. 
 
 A horrid joy diffused itself over his countenance; his eyes 
 sparkled with the red fire of vengeance. "1 am not to be 
 deceived, " said he. " William, behold thy son, and this son 
 has excited my wrath. My patience, wearied with thy outrages, 
 at length has found a punishment proportioned to thy audacity. 
 I will pronounce it: listen. 
 
 " I wish, even in punishing thee, to render homage to this 
 rare talent of which thy happy country boasts so much; I wish, 
 that, in contemplating nit/ justice, the people of Altorff should 
 admire % skill. They shall give thee back thy bow ; they shall 
 place thy son before thee at the distance of an hundred paces. 
 An apple shall be placed upon his head; that apple shall be the 
 mark for thy arrow If thy hand, sure of its aim, carries the 
 apple away with the arrow, I will show mercy to you both; 
 restore you both your liberty. If thou refusest this proof, thy 
 son shall die before thine eyes." 
 
 "Baibarian!" replied Tell, " what demon from the regions 
 of the damned, can have inspired thee with such an idea? O, 
 God ! who hearest us at this moment, wilt thou suffer these 
 horrible excesses of the genius of cruelty? No! I will not 
 accept the proof; no! I will not expose myself to the danger of 
 becoming the murderer of my son! I ask for death; I implore 
 it of thy executioners: they are all here; all who surround thee 
 have drenched their guilty hands an hundred times in blood. 
 Let them turn their swords on me; let them be levelled at my 
 heart! I beg it of thee; I conjure thee to do it ! Let me but die 
 innocent; ret me die as a man, and as a father! Hear me, 
 Gesler : thy numerous guards, the example of a whole people, 
 the certitude, the sight of punishment, could not make me bow- 
 before thee : I preferred death to such baseness. But now, to 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 37 
 
 obtain that death, to escape from the dreadful danger of mur- 
 dering my child, see me kneel before thee ! Promise me death, 
 Gesler. I will bow before thy pride! 7 ' 
 
 "No!" cried Albert, whose youth and manners touched with 
 pity the hearts even of the satellites ; " no ! yield not to his 
 request, I accept I accept the proof: be it as thou hast pro- 
 mised. My father shall be free! Courage, courage, my worthy 
 Sire ! Heaven will guide thy hand. Fear not ; thy son is in 
 safety. Pardon me if my tenderness could for a moment forget 
 my father. I trembled for thee, and thee alone : to save thee, 
 I abandoned what is dearer to me than all the world, the name, 
 the endearing name, of thy son ! O, my father ! pardon me, my 
 father ! my beloved father ! Permit me to repeat an hundred 
 times that name which but so lately I refused to acknowledge. 
 Be of good courage : thou wilt not kill me. A secret voice 
 whispers to my heart that I am safe. Lead me forth : lead me 
 forth ! Clara go ; but take care not to acquaint my mother. " 
 
 Albert threw himself into William's bosom, who received, 
 embraced, and pressed him to his heart : he wished to speak ; 
 he drowned him with his tears : he could only repeat, with a 
 trembling and stifled voice, " No, my son! no, my dear son!" 
 Clara swooned ; the soldiery carried her into the palace : and 
 the inflexible Gesler, without being moved at this spectacle, 
 repeated his terrible order; offered for the last time to William 
 the choice of seeing his son perish before his eyes, or accepting 
 the proof. William heard him; his head was bent, and his eyes 
 fixed on the earth; he remained a few moments without giving 
 any reply, still holding Albert in his arms. He suddenly raised 
 his head looked at the Governor ; his eyes were red with tears, 
 and flamed with indignation. "I will obey," replied he. 
 " Lead me forth ! I will obey ! " 
 
 The father and the son, holding each other by the hand, were 
 immediately surrounded by the guards; they left the palace 
 together under the conduct of Sarnem. The people were already 
 informed of the horrid spectacle about to be exhibited, and 
 hastened to the market place. Each murmured from the bottom 
 of his heart, but each feared to express a sentiment of pity. 
 Their fearful looks sought William; they discovered him sur- 
 rounded by lances, walking by the side of Albert, who smiled 
 as he went on; tears, however, gushed in his eyes, when he 
 beheld the looks of his father; but terror restrained those tears 
 Gesler would have punished them as a crime. Every eye 
 was bent to the earth : a melancholy silence reigned amongst 
 the people ; they felt, suffered, and were silent. 
 
38 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 The space was already measured by the savage Sarnem; a 
 double line of soldiers enclosed this space on three sides: the 
 people pressed behind them. Albert, at the extremity, beheld 
 all the preparations with a countenance tranquil and serene. 
 Gcsler, at some distance behind Tell, remained surrounded by 
 his guard, and observed with inquietude the melancholy silence 
 of the people; and William, surrounded with lances, remained 
 with his eyes thoughtfully cast on the ground. They presented 
 him his bow and a single arrow: after having tried the point, 
 he broke it, and asked for his quiver. They brought it: he 
 emptied it on the ground, examined, chose amongst his arrows, 
 remained some time kneeling, seized a favourable moment, and 
 concealed an arrow under his dress; he took another in his 
 hand, that which he meant to use. Sarnem ordered the remain- 
 der to be taken away, and William slowly strung his bow of 
 yew. 
 
 He looked at his son stopped raised his eyes to heaven 
 threw down the bow and the arrow and begged to speak to 
 Albert. Four soldiers led William to him. "My son," said 
 he, " I must embrace thee once more. I must repeat what I 
 have already told thee: be motionless, my son ; rest with one 
 knee on the"gr un d: thou wilt then be more firm, or more cer- 
 tain of not moving. Thou wilt pray to God, my son, to protect 
 thy unfortunate father. Oh, no! pray only for thyself: let not 
 the idea of thy father unnerve thee; 'twould weaken, perhaps, 
 that heroic and manly courage which I admire, though I cannot 
 imitate it. No, my son! I can never shew myself so great as 
 thee. Preserve ! preserve, that fortitude of which I should wish 
 to give thee an example. Yes; remain thus thus, my boy! 
 
 ;>s my fondest hopes could wish. rCould wish! Wretch that 
 
 .1 am! O thou Most High, thou permittest! hear me, 
 
 Albert : turn thy head ; thou do'st not know, thou canst not 
 foresee, the effect which it would have on thee, to see the glittering 
 steel levelled at thy face. Turn thy head, my boy! and do not 
 look at me." "No! no!" replied the boy; "fear nothing: I 
 will look at you. I shall not see the arrow; I shall only see 
 my father." " O, my dear boy! " cried Tell, "don't speak to 
 me! don't speak! Thy voice, thy accent, will deprive me of my 
 strength. Cease, pray to God, and do not stir! " 
 
 William embraced him anew turned to leave him; embra- 
 ced him once more repeated his last words placed the apple 
 n his head and hastened to the spot assigned for him. 
 
 He took his bow and his arrow; fixed his eyes on the mark 
 so dear; twice he essayed to raise his bow, and twice it fell from 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 39 
 
 his paternal hands. At length, summoning up all his skill, his 
 strength, and courage, he wiped the tears from his streaming 
 eyes; invoked the Great Eternal, who from heaven's high throne 
 watches over parents; and, nerving his trembling arm, he 
 endeavoured, he accustomed his eye to see nothing but the 
 apple. Profitting by the only moment, swift as thought when 
 he could forget his son, he drew the bow; the arrow whizzed 
 on the wing, cleft the apple, and carried it away. 
 
 The place resounded with the shouts of joy. Albert flew and 
 embraced his father, who pale and motionless, overcome with 
 the effort he had made, returned not his caresses : he looked at 
 him: his eyes were swollen with tears; he scarcely heard what 
 his son said to him: his knees tottered he was ready to fall. 
 He fell into the arms of Albert, who discovered the arrow 
 concealed beneath his clothes. 
 
 Gesler was already near him; Gesler snatched the arrow. 
 William recovered his senses, and immediately fixed his eyes 
 on the cruel Gesler, who instantly addressed him : " unequalled 
 archer!" said he, "I will fulfill my promise; I will pay the 
 price of thy astonishing skill. But, first, tell me what was 
 intended by this arrow, which thou concealed from my sight. 
 Only one was necessary: for what purpose was this?'" "To 
 pierce thy heart, tyrant, ' replied Tell, " if my unfortunate hand 
 had shortened the days of my son ! " 
 
 At these words, which a father could not retain, the terrified 
 Governor rushed into the midst of his satellites. He revoked 
 his promise; he ordered Sarnem to load William with chains, 
 and conduct him to the fortress. They obeyed ; they tore him 
 from Albert's embrace, who desired in vain to accompany his 
 father. The guards repulsed Albert: the people murmured, 
 but were compelled to stifle their sentiments. Gesler hastened 
 to his palace, and ordered all his troops to be in arms. Nume- 
 rous platoons of Austrians paraded in every part of the city, 
 and compelled the affrighted inhabitants to conceal themselves 
 in their houses. Terror reigned in Altorff, and the executioners 
 with savage anxiety waited for new victims. 
 
 END OF THE THIRD BOOK. 
 
40 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 BOOK FOURTH. 
 
 WHILE the restless tyrant secured himself within his fortress, 
 doubled the guards around the ramparts, and dreaded lest the 
 populace, enraged, should endeavour to rescue William, Albert, 
 the unhappy Albert, with tearful eyes and arms extended, 
 demanded of all he met to restore to him his father. Repulsed 
 by the ferocious soldiery, who guarded every avenue, with 
 agonizing shrieks he paced around the citadel. Clara who 
 during the horrid scene had been detained in the palace, at 
 length escaped the watchfulness of those who guarded her, 
 and sought Albert on every side : she succeeded in finding'him, 
 flew into his arms, and sought to dry his tears. " My father is 
 in chains ! " said Albert ; " my unhappy father is about to 
 perish ! Clara, listen to me : I Jiave lost the cheering hope of 
 gaining admittance to his prison, of remaining with him, of 
 attending him, and ending my life with his. I will yet attempt 
 the only chance now left me of his safety. I hasten to Under- 
 wald : I will acquaint your father of the danger of his friend. 
 Melctal has many friends ; Melctal is brave, has arms, and will 
 fly to his deliverance. I intreat you, my good, my much loved 
 Clara, return to my mother; tell her what has happened, and 
 what I am gone about. Go, Clara ; go quickly and console 
 her. I shall not return without Melctal I will perish, or I 
 will save my father ! You must supply my place to my beloved 
 mother. *' 
 
 He spoke, and, directly leaving Clara, in eager haste he leaves 
 the city, and soon reaches the mountains. Clara hastily returned 
 towards the -cottage of Tell, where the old Henry, where the 
 gentle Emma, far from William, from their children, whose fate 
 they knew not, consumed the hours in anxious expectation. 
 
 The sudden arrival of Clara, pale, and almost breathless with 
 fear, and suffused with tears, increased the agonies of Emma : 
 she arose, and flew towards her ; at the same time exclaiming, 
 " Albert ! Albert, my son ! Where, where is my boy ? ' ; " He 
 is alive ! he is at liberty ! " hastily answered Clara, who threw 
 herself into her grandsire's arms, embraced him, embraced 
 Emma ; and in a faultering voice she then related all that had 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 41 
 
 happened ; how they were led from prison to be confronted 
 with Tell; and the dreadful alternative to which both the father 
 and the son were compelled to submit. She knew not much 
 more, but that William was in prison, loaded with chains; 
 Albert, to procure his father's deliverance, had gone to seek out 
 Melctal; Tell was threatened with death, and the Governor 
 had sworn it. 
 
 At this melancholy recital, Emma, overwhelmed with grief; 
 fell senseless on the bench she sat. The old man, in frantic 
 agony, uttered the most lamentable cries ; he insisted on being 
 taken to his son would fight with him, and perish in assisting 
 to deliver William. Clara with difficulty restrained the pitiable 
 old man, runs to the assistance of Emma, arid exerts her tender 
 cares to soothe these two unhappy parents. 
 
 At length, after the first effusions of so deep a sorrow, old 
 Henry regained the coolness of reason; regained his courage 
 and his prudence; seized the hands of Emma, already on his 
 lap, and pressed them to his heart. " Weep not, " said he, " my 
 virtuous friend, weep not: let us not lose in vain tears a period, 
 every moment of which is so precious. Albert is in Underwald ; 
 in a few hours he will reach my son. I know Melctal. This 
 very night, Melctal, followed by all his friends, will take the 
 route to Altorff; he will reach there to-morrow, and attempt 
 every thing to save William. But, perhaps, the few friends he 
 has may be insufficient for the grand design. I have several in 
 the town; I will go and arouse their courage, excite and encou- 
 rage them : they will lead me to the market place at the dawn 
 of day. There will I speak, there will I shew the wounds I 
 have received from Gesler, the sockets from whence my eyes 
 were torn by his myrmidons. My age, my hoary locks, my 
 disfigured face, my blood yet upon my clothes, and the tears of 
 this feeble girl, all will aid the eloquence of truth. I hope it, I 
 am certain of it: the people, moved with their wrongs and mine, 
 will be proud to avenge them both. The crowd will imme- 
 diately increase the number of friends I had collected: my son 
 and your's will come ; they will find a numerous body ready to 
 join them. We will attack the fort. I will remain in the thick- 
 est of the battle, to animate our brave soldiers ; I will make the 
 air echo with the names of our country and Liberty! They 
 will carry me if I cannot follow them; they will carry me to thy 
 husband; they will bring us both back to thy arms. Yes, I am 
 certain of it: God inspires me with the thought, and announces 
 to me the certitude of victory. Come, daughter let us go this 
 instant; come, give me my stick, and lend me thine arm. 
 Night cannot be far off: the night may be of use to us." 
 
42 WILLIAM TELL, 
 
 "I approve your design," said Emma, "but it is I who must 
 conduct you. Yet, ere we leaveliome, deign to hear me for a 
 moment: I know, though he has never informed me of it, that 
 my husband has long meditated the grand design of delivering 
 his country. His secret journeys in Schwitz, in Underwald, in 
 Urseren; the quantity of arms which he has concealed ; his 
 frequent nocturnal absence; and the p re-occupation of mind 
 which I read on his countenance.; all confirmed me of a con- 
 spiracy which has been long forming in the three Cantons, and 
 that William is the soul of it. I know not the names of the 
 other chiefs; but I know that those chiefs exist, and that at a 
 certain moment a signal, without doubt, is settled upon and 
 agreed between them. I have not been able to discover what 
 this signal is : but a few days ago a thought darted across my 
 brain like lightening, from a word my husband dropped : this, 
 with several others, has led me to suspect, has led me to believe, 
 that the signal agreed upon by the patriot chiefs could be no 
 other than a burning pile on the summit of this mountain. Time 
 and assistance are wanting to form the pile to-night; but a secret 
 voice whispers to my heart, that, if we could only make such a 
 large fire, all the friends of my husband would haste to his 
 deliverance. I consult thee, Meictal: my weak hand will suffice 
 to set fire to the cottage which has served for our asylum. It 
 stands on the most elevated spot. The vast flame will be seen 
 by all the three Cantons. What is my house, my goods, to me, 
 when my husband is in danger? If I save him, thou wilt receive 
 us; if I lose him, I then only want a tomb! " 
 
 She spoke, and old Henry encouraged her in the design. 
 Emma seized a bundle of dry branches, lighted it in the cottage, 
 threw the flaming brands about her, and burnt without regret, 
 without a sigh or tear, the cradle of her child and the chaste 
 hymeneal bed, which set the whole dwelling in a blaze; when, 
 feeling certain that nothing could extinguish the flames, she gave 
 her arm to the old man, who was supported on the other side 
 by Clara; and thus they descended together the craggy moun- 
 tain, and took the road to AltorfF. 
 
 During the deep silence which terror had spread throughout 
 the town, the old man, Emma, and Clara, knocked at the doors 
 of their friends. The fire lighted by the hand of Emma 
 augmented, and, reaching the thatched roof of the cottage, the 
 thatch blazed, and cast an immense glare of light. V truer 
 perceived it in Schwitz; the fiery Meictal, whom Albert had 
 not yet reached, leaped for joy at the sight; and Furst, in the 
 heart of Urseren, doubted not but that William was at the head 
 of the brave inhabitants of Altorff, and called on him for succour. 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 43 
 
 Those three chiefs took arms at the same moment, and hastened 
 to collect their friends, and call them to liberty. Their friends 
 awoke, seized their arms, assembled in silence, formed them- 
 selves into battalions; and -from three quarters, almost at the 
 same instant, the three chiefs marched towards Altorff, followed 
 by troops weak in numbers, but strong in courage, and resolved 
 to perish or deliver their country. 
 
 With accelerated steps they hasted onwards : retarded by the 
 snows, by torrents, and unbeaten roads, they dreaded lest they 
 should arrive too late at the fort ; at this formidable fort, which 
 they must attack at once, and take it with the tyrant. But he, 
 full of inquietude, alarmed by the emotions he witnessed in the 
 people, fearing for his prisoner, trembling for his own life, had 
 already taken new measures, any one of which would render 
 vain all the efforts of the three patriots. Gesler at the decline 
 of day, reflecting that his fortress filled with soldiers did not 
 contain provisions sufficient for a long siege, fearing to see 
 himself beseiged in this impregnible fortress, that he should not 
 be able to communicate with the rest of his army scattered in 
 Lucerne, Gesler called Sarnem to give him new orders; " Sar- 
 nem, " said he, " I am going to leave Altorff, where thou shalt 
 command in my absence. I leave thee my brave soldiers, who 
 will obey thy voice, and thine alone. This vile people, whose 
 insolent murmurs are yet heard, shall soon be crushed by the re- 
 inforcements which I will send to thee. Let a large boat be in- 
 stantly prepared, in which fifty men chosen from my guard can go 
 with me this evening. As soon as night veils the earth, let the 
 audacious William be conveyed to the boat: he yet dares to 
 brave my vengeance. Let him be laden with chains ; take care 
 of that, and see that he is conducted by a strong guard. I will 
 myself take him to the strong castle of Kusnach, at the extremity 
 of the lake of Lucerne: there, more safely guarded than here, 
 there he shall remain in a dungeon chained, and punished by 
 every ingenuity of torture that can leave the spark of life existing, 
 and prove to the inhabitants of Altorff what may be expected 
 from my vengeance. " Sarnem, proud of being chosen to replace 
 the Governor, hastened -to obey his orders. 
 
 The boat was soon prepared, and fifty chosen archers were 
 conducted by Sarnem himself to the dungeon of Tell, The 
 hero loaded with heavy chains, which scarcely allowed him the 
 power of moving, is placed under the charge of those fifty 
 archers; and as soon as night had spread her sable mantle on 
 the earth, they conducted him in silence towards the shore, 
 where Gesler, alone and in disguise, had already secretly 
 
44 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 repaired. Gesler made them place the captive in the hold of the 
 vessel, surrounded by his archers ; seated himself near the prow : 
 lavished his wine and money upon the soldiers and the rowers; 
 and they departed without observation. 
 
 The vessel scudded over the waves : the air was pure, the 
 water smooth, and the stars shone brightly in the firmament. 
 A gentle southern breeze aided the efforts of the rowers, and 
 tempered the rigour of the cold, which night, the time of year 
 and the frost would otherwise render almost insupportable. 
 Every thing favoured Gesler s wishes. He soon passed over 
 the first lake of four Cantons; steered his course direct for 
 Brunnen, in order to traverse the strait which leads into the 
 second. Tell, in the mean time, borne down with the weight 
 of his chains, stretched on the deck, in the midst of his guards, 
 recognized on the left bank the barren rocks of Grutty ; and that 
 cavern, where, on the very evening before, he meditated with 
 his friends, the freedom of his country. The sight of this, the 
 recollection of what had passed there but so lately, nearly 
 staggered his resolution. He felt the big drops stand on his 
 eye, and, quickly wiping them away, he turned aside his head. 
 William looked up to heaven, which at that moment seemed to 
 have forsaken him. On a sudden he beheld on the side of 
 Altorff a red and glimmering light: soon the light increased, 
 and Tell perceived a bright flame ascending from above Uri. 
 His heart palpitated with violent emotion: he could not divine 
 what occasioned this signal, the secret of which he had entrusted 
 to no person whatsoever. He doubts he looks again with eager 
 eyes; arid at length is convinced that the blaze seems to come 
 from the mountain on which his dwelling was situated. He 
 gave thanks to heaven, though ignorant whether it was a benefit : 
 he hoped not, he thought not, that this circumstance might save 
 his life; but it might save his country : and this thought rendered 
 him forgetful of his own immediate danger. 
 
 Gesler and his soldiers had also perceived the flames ; they 
 pointed it out with much surprise; they attributed it to some 
 burning cottage, and heeded not the misfortune which concerned 
 their enemies only. Gesler urged on the rowers; impatient to 
 arrive at the destined place, he ordered them to increase their 
 efforts. The vessel steered toward the west, passed the narrow 
 strait, and rowed on the deep waters of the dangerous lake of 
 Underwald : there on a sudden the south wind ceased to aid 
 the rapid vessel; the north and the west winds now reigned in 
 the troubled atmosphere. 
 
 The one, the harbinger of tempests, swelled, heaped, and 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 4.5 
 
 gathered the billows into mountains, that instaataneously broke 
 with a tremendous noise over the vessel, which yielding to their 
 force, was driven in each succeeding instant in a different direc- 
 tion : vain were the efforts of the rowers. Now they were 
 driven with impetuosity towards the shore, and immediately 
 back towards the straits. The other, leading on the hoar frost, 
 clouds, and snow, covered the heavens with a funereal veil, and 
 spread the shades of darkness on the surface of the foaming 
 deep; struck the faces and the hands of the rowers with the 
 crystalized points of ice, compelled them to abandon their 
 labours, and hid from their downcast eyes the sight of their 
 danger ; filled their vessel with the frozen flakes of snow, and, 
 contending with the north wind, turned the bark round on her 
 keel; now bore her high as the mountain tops on the white 
 foaming billow ; now precipitated her into an abyss of waters, 
 menaced on each side by mountainous billows ready to break 
 over her, and bury the whole amid the howling tempest. 
 
 The soldiers, pale and overwhelmed with horror, felt their 
 approaching death inevitable, and prayed on their knees to that 
 God whom they had so long forgotten. The cowardly Geslcr, 
 trembling yet more than his soldiers, heaped promises of rewards 
 and treasures on the rowers if they could save his life : but they, 
 sad, silent, and half dead with fear, replied to his entreaties 
 only by silence. Tears, the dishonourable tears of weakness 
 and of cowardice, bathed for 'the first time the ferocious eyes of 
 the Governor. He was about to perish; he felt certain of it: 
 his riches and his might, the savage power with which he swayed, 
 and his trusty slaves, all now availed him nothing; they could 
 not avert the stroke of fate. He wept; he regretted life; regret- 
 ted that his thirst of blood could now no longer be supplied. 
 
 Tell, tranquil in the same place, less moved by the cries of 
 the soldiers and the fury of the winds than his inability to dis- 
 cover the cavern of Grutty. Tell waited death with a smile, and 
 gloried in the idea of the happiness his country would derive 
 from the tyrant's fate: in silence he enjoyed the fears, the 
 trembling sobs and sighs, the torments, which Gesler felt; when 
 one of the rowers suddenly addressed the cruel monster : " We 
 are lost! " said he: "it is no longer in our power to withstand 
 the violence of the north wind, which will instantly dash our 
 vessel against the rocks which border on the lake. A man, the 
 most renowned in our three Cantons in the art of braving a 
 storm, can alone afford us even a hope of existence: that man 
 is here, here, loaded with chains. Choose, Gesler; choose 
 between the death of all, and his liberty! " Gesler trembled at 
 
46 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 the thought; his invincible hatred for Tell effected a counterpoise 
 even in his pusillanimous soul between death and the hero's 
 liberty. He hesitated, he gave no answer; but the prayers, the 
 murmurs of the soldiers and the rowers, who asked, who begged, 
 and pressed him to save his own life and theirs, in liberating 
 his prisoner, the fear of being disobeyed if he refused, and the 
 .increasing tempest, determined him at length. " Take off his 
 chains, " said he. " I pardon all his crimes, I restore him his 
 life and liberty, if he brings us safe to land. " 
 
 The soldiers and the rowers hastened to set William free. 
 He arose, and, without saying a word, took the command of the 
 helm ; turned the bark at his pleasure as a child would do a wand : 
 he opposed the prow to the contending winds, whose forces, thus 
 divided, held them in equilibrio. Profiting by a moment of 
 calm, with the rapidity of thought he turned the vessel round ; 
 kept her in the only direction which could save them; seized 
 two oars, and by his individual efforts succeeded, in spite of the 
 winds, waves and tempest, in repassing the straits. The dark- 
 ness of the night prevented Gesler from perceiving that he was 
 returning. William redoubled his efforts in silence; the first 
 rays of refracted light darted through the black clouds of the 
 tempest ; but he was in the lake of Uri, and he perceived the 
 dying flame of the signal given oh the mountain of Altorff. 
 This light served him for a beacon : he had long known the lake ; 
 he avoided the shoals and rocks, and approached by degrees the 
 shore of the Canton of Schwitz. He thought of Verner; he 
 calculated that Verner ought to be on his march; and that the 
 roads, covered with snow, would oblige him to coast along the 
 lake. In this feeble hope he steered the vessel, feigning igno- 
 rance of the place the tempest drove her to, and increased the 
 fears of Gesicr and his soldiers. 
 
 At length, streaks of red appeared towards the east, and the 
 storm lulled by degrees with the rising beams of morning. The 
 opening day discovered to Tell the rocks near AltorfF, before 
 the tyrant, whose scrutinizing look he feared, had time to recog- 
 nise them. William directs the vessel's- course, and urged the 
 rowers to their utmost exertions. Gesler, whose cruelty returned 
 as danger disappeared, observed William with a suspicious eye: 
 he wished, yet dared not, again to fetter him. The soldiers and 
 the rowers, perceiving however where they were, acquainted the 
 Governor, who, advancing hastily towards Tell, enraged, and 
 in a voice of passion, demanded why the vessel which he had 
 charge of bent her course towards AltorfF. William heeded 
 him not he answered not, but laid the vessel alongside of a 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 47 
 
 rock a litt'e distance from the shore; with one hand eagerly 
 snatched a bow and arrow which an archer held, and, with the 
 velocity of lightning, he shoved the vessel against the rock. 
 There, without a moment's rest, he bounded like the chamois 
 of the mountains, leaped upon another nearer to the bark, quickly 
 climbed the craggy bank, and mounted to its summit; like to 
 the Alpine eagle when he reposes amongst the clouds, and looks 
 with piercing eyes upon the harmless flocks covering the verdant 
 rallies. 
 
 The astonished Governor uttered a cry of fury and of rage; 
 he instantly orders every one to disembarkj and directs his 
 soldiers to divide themselves, and surround the rock, where he 
 beheld the hero. They obey, and already prepare their bows. 
 Gesler, in the midst of them, wishes their united arrows drenched 
 in the blood of William. William also has his plans: he stop- 
 ped not in one place he only shews himself to draw the soldiers 
 after him : he permitted the armed body to approach him near 
 enough to do the work of death; he fixed his eye with steadiness 
 on Gesler, fitted the arrow to the string, and, pointing it against 
 the tyrant's heart, it cleft the air. The arrow flew, whistling in 
 its rapid course, and pierced the heart of Gesler. The tyrant 
 fell, muttering nought but rage, fresh execrations, and vomitting 
 out the purple tide of life ; his guilty soul fled, while curses 
 closed his lips. William had already disappeared; William, 
 more active than the fawn, darted from the summit of the rock : 
 he flew along the fields of ice, traversed the now unfrequented 
 paths, and took the road to Altorff. 
 
 He soon discovered in the snow the recent traces of their 
 friends, whom Verner that very night had led from Schwitz. 
 William followed them; he ran, he neared them. Tumultuous 
 shouts and the noise of arms are heard at a distance: he flew 
 with all his speed. Arrived at the market place 'tis already 
 filled; occupied by three battalions of heroes. Verner, at the 
 head of the warriors of Schwitz, wished to secure the gates before 
 they attack the fort ; Furst, with the brave youths of Uri, solicits 
 the post of danger; Melctal, followed by those of Underwald, 
 cleft the air with his ponderous axe, and with loud shouts 
 demanded the order for attack. Albert, who had never quitted 
 iiim, armed with a long lance, pronounced the name of Tell, 
 demanded him of the soldiers, and pointed at a distance to the 
 prison where they still believed that William was confined. The 
 old Henry, Clara, Emma, mixed amongst the ranks of the scat- 
 tered troops, and urged them on to the attack. 
 
 Sudden and unexpected, William appeared in the centre of 
 
48 WILLIAM T1.I.L. 
 
 the three patriot battalions. An universal shout of joy was 
 heard throughout the ranks, and echoed from the mountains: a 
 profound silence succeeded to it. All attentively waited for the 
 orders of Tell all seemed attentive to obey him alone. " My 
 friends, my companions, " said the hero, " Gesler is no more ! 
 this bow, this arm, has punished all his crimes. The corpse 
 of Gesler, stretched upon the bank of the lake, is surrounded 
 by those vile myrmidons whom terror had dispersed : we have, 
 then, nothing now to dread. Our country is revenged, but she 
 is not yet free; nor will she ever be so, at least so long as one 
 single stone remains of that frowning citadel which so long has 
 awed us. Let us, then, attack this formidable work, the sole 
 hope, sole refuge, of the ferocious Austrians; let our troops 
 march together, and let the bravest lead the onset! " 
 
 He spoke, and seizing the standard of Uri in his left hand, 
 with his right he grasped his battle-axe, and rushed onwards to 
 the hill on which the fort was built. Furst and his followers 
 closely pursued his steps ; Verner, with those of Schwitz, pressed 
 after them : Melctal with Underwald had already got half way ; 
 and Albert marched by the side of his father. Sarnem, prepared, 
 awaited them. A cloud of arrows and of lances flew from the 
 frowning ramparts: they checked not the onset of the assailants, 
 who advanced without exchanging a single arrow to the foot of 
 the walls: 'Twas then the terrible, the fierce Sarnem, at a signal 
 which he had agreed on, hurled from the battlements huge rocks 
 and stones, followed by boiling pitch and oil. The brave war- 
 riors of the three Cantons are every where repulsed : the burning 
 oil penetrates their garments, and consumes them in horrid 
 agonies; they expire in excrutiating pain; they bit the dust, 
 and uttered their last piercing cries: but their "cries were still 
 for Liberty! Regardless of their pain and agony, the dying 
 heroes exhorted, encouraged their companions, and bade them 
 inarch over their bodies to scale the citadel. The Austrians 
 insulted them, and mocked their woes. Sarnem, placed between 
 two battlements, smiled contemptuously at their powerless 
 efforts: he animated his soldiers, and his presence and his cou- 
 rage prolong this fierce attack. 
 
 William, surrounded by the dying and the dead, preserved 
 his coolness and intrepidity; but at length, alarmed at the great 
 number of his faithful soldiers he had lost, he called to him 
 Melctal; and, reproaching himself with having too easily 
 listened to the eager suggestions of bravery alone in making the 
 attack, he exhorted him, nay he commanded him, to withdraw 
 his brave troops from the combat, and to make an attack on the 
 
WILLIAM TELL. 49 
 
 eastern side, whilst Verner and himself should redouble their 
 efforts to conceal this movement from the enemy. Melctal 
 obeyed; William and Verner again give the word, uttered 
 loud shouts; and Sarncm and his troops, occupied with the 
 fresh assault, unite all their efforts to oppose the attack of 
 William. In the mean time, Melctal and his associates reached 
 the eastern gate, which was but weakly guarded : he struck it 
 with his powerful axe, laid fire to the frame, and the gate is soon 
 in flames. Melctal darted forwards, and penetrated into the 
 fort with the youths of Underwald : all yield, all fly before 
 him. Sarnem, engaged in resisting Tell, heard the cries of the 
 flying and the conquerors: he hastens to oppose them ; he turns, 
 and beholds Melctal. Melctal, rapid as the thunderbolt, raised 
 his ponderous axe, and cleft his hated rival; then, advancing to 
 the edge of the battlements, he extended his hands, and cried 
 out Victory!!.' 
 
 William soon joined him, and the standard of Uri floated 
 over the walls of this once formidable castle. Melctal and 
 Verner, standing on aheap of slain, gave thanks to the Almighty, 
 and answered to the acclamations of the people whom they had 
 delivered. 
 
 The fort was soon cleared of the dead bodies which had filled 
 it. The troops of the three Cantons surrounded their gallant 
 chiefs, and carried them in triumph amongst the inhabitants of 
 Altorff, who, running from all quarters, were assembled in the 
 market place to behold their deliverers, and to confide to their 
 wisdom, their courage, and their talents, the defence of Liberty; 
 but William entreated their silence, and, having obtained it, 
 thus addressed them: 
 
 " My countrymen ! at length you are restored to freedom ; 
 but this freedom, so dear to us, is perhaps more difficult to 
 preserve than to acquire: for the one, bravery will alone suffice; 
 for the other, w r e must possess virtues, austere, steady, and 
 immoveable. Guard against the delirium of victory; guard 
 against a blind adoration of those who obtained it for you. 
 You already speak of chusing us your chiefs; while the only 
 recompence which I require, the only one my heart now wishes 
 for, is to become a soldier; and to enjoy that equality, that 
 charm, so pure, so dear, to true republicans. In a republic, 
 my friends, we all are useful. Perish the man who thinks other- 
 wise ! and unhappy be that people who will not punish even 
 the thought! 
 
 "Assemble together, my friends, to weigh in the meditation 
 of your wisdom both your interests and your designs; let every 
 
50 WILLIAM TELL. 
 
 man, according to the laws, think, examine, and advise, what 
 he deems best for his country's good; let this privilege be given 
 to every citizen of the- age of twenty years. In proportion as 
 we love our country, we have a right to interest ourselves about 
 her welfare, and to contribute to it, both by our personal efforts 
 and our understandings. Elect aLandamman ; let that ancient 
 title, respected by our forefathers, become more so amongst us; 
 let a council direct him; and let him, in turn, direct the council. 
 Enact laws: without laws, what would you be? Liberty is 
 but another name for submission to wise and prudent laws : 
 without them, it would be licentiousness. Preserve your morals ; 
 let them become, if possible, more pure. Without true virtue, 
 there is no liberty. The republican, by this name, is placed, in 
 the middle state betwixt men and angels: let him, then, be 
 better; let him, then, be greater than Jiis fellow men by whom 
 he is surrounded. 
 
 "For myself, fellow citizens! I wish not, I ask not, nor will 
 accept, only the endearing name of Fellow Patriot, and the 
 right of combating in your ranks. You must expect new traits 
 of your courage; you must expect that the Emperor will endea- 
 vour to regain the sceptre you have now wrested from him. 
 Prepare yourselves, then, to resist his efforts; prepare for battles, 
 and trust your cause to God! Call, however, to the assistance 
 of Liberty the other Cantons of Switze; land : either I am much 
 deceived, or their hearts already beat in unison with ours Then, 
 by dint of arms, of virtue, and of courage, you will found a 
 republic which will one day become the terror and the admira- 
 tion of all Europe; then will mighty kings be proud of the 
 name of Ally, and will believe themselves invincible while they 
 have the Swiss for their defenders; then, reaping the full honours 
 both of valour and of wisdom, you will prefer the glory of being 
 Men and Free!" 
 
 lie spoke, and the people, with loud continued plaudits, 
 signified their approbation : they immediately proceeded to the 
 election of their magistrates. Tell, Verner Melctal, now 
 returned to their original rank of simple citizens; received the 
 humble reward, the meed of valour and of virtue, a crown of 
 oak : they returned to their former ranks. And this people 
 for two hundred years resisted all the power of the Empire, and 
 and founded its freedom on its victories. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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